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THE HUDSON AT WEST POINT, WITH VIGNETTE OF 
KOSCIUSKO'S GARDEN. 



THE HUDSON 



BY 



WALLACE BRUCE 

ii 






HO I 

ILLUSTRATED BY 



ALFRED FREDERICKS 

WITH PHOTO-ENGRAVINGS OF SCENERY 




PUBLISHED BY 
BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON 

AND 

BRYANT UNION, TEMPLE COURT, NEW YORK 



FiZ7 



Copyright, 1894, 
by Wallace Bruce. 



PRESS OF A. V. HAIGHT, POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



Greeting: ..... 

The Hudson (Historical Analysis), 

Desbrosses Street Pier to Twenty-Second 

Pier, Twenty-Second Street, to Yonkers, 

Yonkers to West Point, 

West Point to Newburgh, 

Newburgh to Poughkeepsie, 

poughkeepsie to rhinecliff, 

rhinecliff to catskill, 

Catskill to Hudson, 

Hudson to Albany, 

Albany to Saratoga Springs, . 

Saratoga to the Adirondacks, 

Saratoga to Lake George, 

Lake George to T ah a was, . 

Albany to Binghamton, . 

Albany to Niagara Falls, . 

Condensed Points, . 

The Geology of the Hudson, 

Some Pleasant Round Trips, . 

Index, .... 



Street, 



PAGE. 

9 

11 

53 

56 

78 

127 

137 

167 

192 

220 

226 

243 

254 

256 

264 

286 

290 

298 

307 

311 

312 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



"West Point, by Alfred Fredericks, ..... 8 

The Half Moon, by Alfred Fredericks, . . . . n 

Palisades of the Hudson, ....... 17 

Break Neck Mountain, ....... 23 

Oloffe Van Cortland's Dream, by Alfred Fredericks, . . 29 

Old Time Hudson Voyagers, by Alfred Fredericks, . . 35 

In the Highlands, ......... 47 

Morning, by Alfred Fredericks, ..... 52 

Palisades and Fort Washington Point, ..... 63 

Mount Taurus, ......... 69 

sunnyside, with vignette of sleepy hollow, by alfred 

Fredericks, ........ 81 

Sleepy Hollow Church, by Alfred Fredericks, ... 91 

Sugar Loaf, 103 

Anthony's Nose (from the South), ...... 108 

The Dade Monument at West Point, ..... 121 

Northern Gate of the Highlands (from West Pomt), . . .. 125 

Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, ... 131 

Morning View at Blue Point, by Alfred Fredericks, . . 155 

Day Line Steamers Passing Under the Poughkeepsie Bridge, 169 
Bastion Falls, Catskill Mountains, ... .190 

The Man in the Mountain, by Alfred Fredericks, . . 207 

Kaaterskill Falls, ........ 213 

Rip Van Winkle's Return, by Alfred Fredericks, . . 215 

Lower Falls of the Kaaterskill, . . .... 217 

Lake George, ......... 259 

Boat Ride, Ausable Chasm, ....... 267 

Indian Head, by Alfred Fredericks, ..... 280 

An Adirondack Camp-Fire, by Alfred Fredericks, . . .283 



LIST OF MAPS. 



Section 1. 
New York to Croton. 

Section 2. 
Croton to Hyde Park. 

Section 3. 
Hyde Park to Coxsackie. 

Section 4. 
Coxsackie to Lansingburgh. 



New York City. 



New York and Environments. 



Albany. 



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GREETING : The Hudson, more than any other river, 
has a distinct personality — an absolute soul-quality. With 
moods as various as the longings of human life she responds 
to our joys in sympathetic sweetness, and soothes our sor- 
rows as by a gentle companionship. If the Mississippi is 
the King of Rivers the Hudson is, par excellence, the 
Queen, and continually charms by her "infinite variety" 
It often seems that there are in reality four separate Hud- 
sons — the Hudson of Beauty, the Hudson of History, the 
Hudson of Literature, and the Hudson of Commerce. To 
blend them all into a loving cable reaching from heart to 
heart is the purpose of the ivriter. It has been his privi- 
lege to walk again and again every foot of its course from 
the wilderness to the sea, to linger beside her fountains and 
dream amid her historic shrines, and from many braided 
threads of memory it has been his hope to set forth with 
affectionate enthusiasm what the student or traveler tvishes 
to see and know of her majesty and glory. 

W. B. 




THE HUDSON. 



The Hudson River is a noble threshold to a great Continent 
and New York Bay a fitting portal. The traveler who enters 
the Narrows for the first time is impressed with wonder, and the 
charm abides even with those who pass daily to and fro amid its 
beauties. No other river in the world approaches the Hudson in 
varied grandeur and sublimity, and no other city has so grand and 
commodious a harbor as New York. It has been the privilege of 
the writer of this hand-book to see again and again most of the 
streams of the old world " renowned in song and story," to behold 
sunrise on the Bay of Naples and sunset at the Golden Gate of 



12 THE HUDSON. 

San Francisco, but the spell of the Hudson remains unbroken, 
and the bright bay at its mouth reflects the noontide without a 
rival. 

The Hudson has often been styled "The Rhine of America." 
There is, however, little of similarity and much of contrast. 
The Rhine from Dusseldorf to Manheim is only twelve hundred 
to fifteen hundred feet in breadth. The Hudson from New York 
to Albany averages more than five thousand feet from bank to 
bank. At Tappan Zee the Hudson is ten times as wide as the 
Rhine at any point above Cologne. At Bonn the Rhine is barely 
one-third of a mile, whereas the Hudson at Haverstraw Bay is 
over four miles in width. The average breadth of the Hudson 
from New York to Poughkeepsie is almost eight thousand feet. 

The Mountains of the Rhine also lack the imposing character 
of the Highlands. The far-famed Drachenfels, the Landskron, 
and the Stenzleburg are only seven hundred and fifty feet above 
the river ; the Alteberg eight hundred, the Rosenau nine hun- 
dred, and the great Oelberg thirteen hundred and sixty-two. 
According to the latest United States Geological Survey the en- 
tire group of mountains at the northern gate of the Highlands is 
from fourteen hundred and five to sixteen hundred and twenty- 
five feet in height, not to speak of the Catskills from three 
thousand to almost four thousand feet in altitude. 

It is not the fault of the Rhine with its nine hundred miles of 
rapid flow that it looks tame compared with the Hudson. Even 
the Mississippi, draining a valley three thousand miles in extent, 
looks insignificant at St. Louis or New Orleans contrasted with 
the Hudson at Tarrytown. The Hudson is in fact a vast estu- 
ary of the sea; the tide rises two feet at Albany and six inches 



THE HUDSON. 13 

at Troy. A Professor of the Berlin University says : " You lack 
our castles but the Hudson is infinitely grander." Thackeray, 
in "The Virginians," gives the Hudson the verdict of beauty; 
and George William Curtis, comparing the Hudson with the 
rivers of the Old World, has gracefully said : " The Danube has 
in part glimpses of such grandeur, the Elbe has sometimes such 
delicately penciled effects, but no European river is so lordly 
in its bearing, none flows in such state to the sea." 

Baedeker, a high and just authority, in his recent Guide to the 
United States says : " The Hudson has sometimes been called the 
American Rhine, but that title perhaps does injustice to both 
rivers. The Hudson, through a great part of its extent, is three 
or four times as wide as the Rhine, and its scenery is grander and 
more inspiring ; while, though it lacks the ruined castles and an- 
cient towns of the German river, it is by no means devoid of his- 
torical associations of a more recent character. The vine-clad 
slopes of the Rhine have, too, no ineffective substitute in the bril- 
liant autumn coloring of the timbered hillsides of the Hudson." 

What must have been the sensation of those early voyagers, 
coasting a new continent, as they halted at the noble Gateway of 
the river and gazed northward along the green fringed Pali- 
sades ; or of Hendrich Hudson, who first traversed its waters 
from Manhattan to the Mohawk, as he looked up from the chubby 
bow of his "Half Moon" at the massive columnar formation of 
the Palisades or at the great Mountains of the Highlands ; what 
dreams of success, apparently within reach, were his, when 
night came down in those deep forest solitudes under the 
shadowy base of Old Cro' Nest and Klinkerberg Mountain, where 
his little craft seemed a lone cradle of civilization ; and then. 



14 THE HUDSON. 

when at last, with immediate purpose foiled, he turned his boat 
southward, having discovered, but without knowing it, some- 
thing infinitely more valuable to future history than his long 
sought "Northwestern Passage to China," how he must have 
gazed with blended wonder and awe at the distant Catskills 
as their sharp lines came out, as we have seen them many a 
September morning, bold and clear along the horizon, and learned 
in gentle reveries the poetic meaning of the blue Ontioras or 
"Mountains of the Sky." How fondly he must have gazed on 
the picturesque hills above Apokeepsing and listened to the mur- 
muring music of Winnikee Creek, when the air was clear as crys- 
tal and the banks seemed to be brought nearer, perfectly re- 
flected in the glassy surface, while here and there his eye wan- 
dered over grassy uplands, and rested on hills of maize in shock, 
looking for all the world like mimic encampments of Indian 
wigwams ! Then as October came with tints which no European 
eye had ever seen, and sprinkled the hill-tops with gold and rus- 
set, he must indeed have felt that he was living an enchanted 
life, or journeying in a fairy land ! 

How graphically the poet Willis has put the picture in musi- 
cal prose: "Fancy the bold Englishman, as the Dutch called 
Hendrich Hudson, steering his little yacht the ' Haalve Maan,' 
for the first time through the Highlands. Imagine his anxiety 
for the channel forgotten, as he gazed up at the towering rocks, 
and round the green shores, and onward past point and opening 
bend, miles away into the heart of the country ; yet with no 
lessening of the glorious stream before him and no decrease of 
promise in the bold and luxuriant shores. Picture him lying at 
anchor below Newburgh with the dark pass of the Wey-Gat 



THE HUDSON. 15 

frowning- behind him, the lofty and blue Catskills beyond, and 
the hillsides around covered with lords of the soil exhibiting 
only less wonder than friendliness." 

If Willis forgot the season of the year and left out the colors 
Talmage has fully supplied them in a recent and glowing vision, 
to complete the picture as Hudson saw it: "Along our river 
and up and down the sides of the great hills there was an in- 
describable mingling of gold, and orange and crimson and saffron, 
now sobering into drab and maroon, now flaring up into solferino 
and scarlet. Here and there the trees looked as if their tips 
had blossomed into fire. In the morning light the forests seemed 
as if they had been transfigured and in the evening hours they 
looked as if the sunset had burst and dropped upon the leaves. 
It seemed as if the sea of divine glory had dashed its surf to the 
top of the crags and it had come dripping down to the lowest 
leaf and deepest cavern." 

On such a day in 1883 it was the privilege of the writer to 
stand before 150,000 people at Newburgh on the occasion of the 
Centennial Celebration of the Disbanding of the Army under 
Washington, and, in a poem entitled "The Long Drama," to 
portray the great mountain background bounding the southern 
horizon with autumnal splendor : 

October lifts with colors bright 

Her mountain canvas to the sky. 
The crimson trees aglow with light 

Unto our banners wave reply. 

Like Horeb's bush the leaves repeat 
From lips of flame with glory crowned : — 

"Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, 
The place they trod is holy ground." 



16 THE HUDSON. 

Such was the vision Hendrich Hudson must have seen in those 
far-off September and October days, and such the picture which 
visitors still compass long- distances to behold. 

" It is a far cry to Loch Awe " says an old Scottish proverb, and 
it is a long step from the sleepy rail of the " Half Moon " to the 
roomy-decked floating- palaces —the "New York" and the 
"Albany." Before beginning our journey let us, therefore, 
bridge the distance with a few intermediate facts, from 1609 to 
1894, relating to the discovery of the river, its early settlement, 
its oid reaches and other points essential to the fullest enjoy- 
ment of our trip, which in sailor-parlance we might style "a 
gang-plank of history " reaching as it does from the old-time 
yacht to the modern steamer, and spanning almost three hundred 
years. 

Its Discovery. — In the year 1524, thirty-two years after the 
discovery of America, the navigator Verrazzani, a French offi- 
cer, anchored off the island of Manhattan and proceeded a short 
distance up the river. The following year, Gomez, a Portu- 
guese in the employ of Spain, coasted along the continent and 
entered the Narrows. Several Dutch captains also visited our 
noble bay about 1598, but it was reserved for Hendrich Hudson, 
with a mixed crew of eighteen or twenty men in the " Half 
Moon," to explore the river from Sandy Hook to Albany, and 
carry back to Europe a description of its beauty. He had already 
made two voyages for the Muscovy Company — an English cor- 
poration — in quest of a passage to China, via the North Pole and 
Nova Zembla. 

In the autumn of 1608 he was called to Amsterdam, and sailed 
from Texel, April 5, 1609, in the service of the Dutch East India 



THE HUDSON. 19 

Company. Reaching- Cape Cod August 6, and Chesapeake Bay 
August 28th , he coasted north to Sandy Hook. He entered the Bay 
of New York September the 3d, passed through the Narrows, and 
anchored in what is now called Newark Bay ; on the 12th re- 
sumed his voyage, and, drifting - with the tide, remained over 
nio-ht on the 13th about three miles above the northern end of 
Manhattan Island ; on the 14th sailed through what is now known 
as Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay, entered the Highlands and 
anchored for the night near the present dock of West Point. On 
the morning of the 15th beheld Newburgh Bay, reached Catskill 
>n the 16th, Athens on the 17th, Castleton and Albany on the 
18th, and then sent out an exploring- boat as far as Waterford. 
He became thoroug-hly satisfied that this route did not lead to 
China — a conclusion in harmony with that of Champlain, who, 
the same summer, had been making- his way south, through 
Lake Champlain and Lake George, in quest of the South Sea. 

There is something humorous in the idea of these old mariners 
attempting to sail through a continent 3,000 miles wide, seamed 
with mountain chains from 2,000 to 15,000 feet in height. Hud- 
son's return voyage began September 23d. He anchored again 
in Newburgh Bay the 25th, arrived at Stony Point October 1st, 
reached Sandy Hook the 4th, and then returned to Europe. 

First Description of the Hudson.— The official record 
of the voyage was kept by Robert Juet, mate of the Half Moon, 
and his journal abounds with graphic and pleasing incidents as 
to the people and their customs. At the Narrows the Indians 
visited the vessel, "clothed in mantles of feathers and robes 
of fur, the women clothed in hemp ; red copper tobacco 
pipes, and other things of copper, they did wear about their 



2J THE HUDSON. 

necks." At Yonkers they came on board in large numbers. 
Two were detained and dressed in red coats, but they sprang 
overboard and swam away. At Catskill they found ' ' a very 
loving people, and very old men. They brought to the ship In- 
dian corn, pumpkins and tobaccos." At Castleton the " Master's 
mate went on land with an old savage, governor of the country, 
who carried him to his house and made him good cheere." "I 
sailed to the shore," he writes, " in one of their canoes, with an 
old man, who was chief of a tribe, consisting of forty men and 
seventeen women. These I saw there in a house well constructed 
of oak bark, and circular in shape, so that it has the appearance 
of being built with an arched roof. It contained a large quan- 
tity of corn and beans of last year's growth, and there lay near 
the house, for the purpose of drying, enough to load three ships, 
besides what was growing in the fields. On our coming to the 
house two mats were spread out to sit upon, and some food was 
immediately served in well-made wooden bowls." 

" Two men were also dispatched at once, with bows and arrows 
in quest of game, who soon brought in a pair of pigeons, which 
they had shot. They likewise killed a fat dog, (probably a black 
bear), and skinned it in great haste, with shells which they had 
got out of the water." 

The well-known hospitality of the Hudson River valley has, 
therefore, "high antiquity" in this record of the garrulous 
writer. At Hudson the Indians nocked to the vessel, and Hud- 
son determined to try the chiefs to see " whether they had any 
treachery in them." " So they took them down into the cabin, 
and gave them so much wine and aqua vital that they were all 
merry. In the end one of them was drunk, and they could not 



THE HUDSON. 21 

tell how to take it." The old chief, who took the aqua vitce, was 
so grateful when he awoke the next day, that he showed them 
all the country, and gave them venison. 

Passing- down through the Highlands the Half Moon was be- 
calmed near Stony Point and the "people of the Mountains" 
came on board and marvelled at the ship and its equipment. 
One canoe kept hanging" under the stern and an Indian pilfered a 
pillow and two shirts from the cabin windows. The mate shot 
at him and struck him in the breast and killed him. A boat 
was lowered to recover the articles "when one of them in the 
water seized hold of it to overthrow it, but the cook seized a 
sword and cut off one of his hands and he was drowned." At the 
head of Manhattan Island the vessel was again attacked. Ar- 
rows were shot and two more Indians were killed, then the at- 
tack was renewed and two more were slain. 

It might also be stated in passing, that soon after the arrival of 
Hendrich Hudson at the mouth of the river one of the Eng- 
lish soldiers, John Coleman, was killed by an arrow shot in the 
throat. "He was buried," according to Ruttenber, "upon the 
adjacent beach, the first European victim of an Indian weapon on 
the Mahicanituk. Coleman's point is the monument to this oc- 
currence." 

The Half Moon never returned and it will be remembered that 
Hudson never again saw the shores of the river that he dis- 
covered . He was to leave his name however as a monument to 
further bravery and hardihood in Hudson's Bay, where he was 
set adrift by a mutinous crew in a little boat to perish in the 
midsummer of 1611. 

Names of the Hudson.— The Iroquois called the river the 



22 THE HUDSON. 

"Cohatatea." The Mahicans and Lenapesthe " Mahicanituk," 
or "the ever-flowing waters." Hudson styled it the " Man- 
hattes" from the tribe at its mouth," the French the Bio de 
Montaigne. The Dutch named it the "Mauritius," in 1611, in 
honor of Prince Maurice of Nassau, and afterwards the Great 
River. It has also been referred to as the " Shatemuck " 
in verse. It was called "Hudson's River" not by the Dutch, 
as generally stated, but by the English, as Henry Hud- 
son was an Englishman, although he sailed from a Dutch port, 
with a Dutch crew, and a Dutch vessel. It was also called the 
"North River," to distinguish it from the Delaware, the South 
River. It is still frequently so styled and the East River almost 
" boxes the compass " as applied to Long Island Sound. 

Height of Hills and Mountains.— It is interesting to hear 
the opinions of different people journeying up and down the 
Hudson as to the height of Mountains along the river. The 
Palisades are almost always under-estimated, probably on ac- 
count of their distance from the steamer. It is only when we 
consider the size of a house at their base, or the mast of a sloop 
anchored against the shore, that we can fairly judge of their 
magnitude. Various Guide Books, put together in a day or a 
month, by writers who have made a single journey, or by persons 
who have never consulted an authority, have gone on multiplying 
blunder upon blunder, but the United States Geological Survey, 
published during the past year, has at last given reliable infor- 
mation. According to their maps just issued the Palisades are 
from 300 to 500 feet in height, the Highlands from 785 to 1625, 
and the Catskills from 3000 to 3885 feet. 



K 
O 



o 




THE HUDSON. 



25 



THE PALISADES. 

At Fort Lee 300 feet. 

Opposite Mt. St. Vincent 400 " 

Opposite Hastings 500 " 

THE HIGHLANDS. 

Sugar Loaf 785 feet. 

Dunderberg 865 

Anthony's Nose 900 

Storm King 1368 

Old Cro' Nest 1405 

Bull Hill 1425 

South Beacon 1625 

THE CATSKILLS. 

North Mountain 3000 feet. 

Platterskill 3135 

Outlook 3150 

Stoppel Point 3426 

Round Top 3470 

High Peak 3660 

Sugar Loaf 3782 

Plateau 3855 

Sources of tlie Hudson.— The Hudson rises in the Adiron- 
dacks, and is formed by two short branches: the northern branch 
(17 miles in length), has its source in Indian Pass, at the base of 
Mount Mclntyre; the eastern branch (20 miles in length), in a 
little lake poetically called the " Tear of the Clouds," 4,321 feet 
above the sea under the summit of Tahawus, the noblest 
mountain of the Adirondacks, 5,344 feet in height. About thirty 



26 THE HUDSON. 

miles below this junction it takes the waters of Boreas River, 
and in the southern part of Warren County, nine miles east of 
Lake George, the tribute of the Schroon. About fifteen miles 
north of Saratoga it receives the waters of the Sacandaga, then the 
streams of the Battenkill and the Walloomsac ; and a short dis- 
tance above Troy its largest tributary, the Mohawk. The tide 
rises six inches at Troy and two feet at Albany, and from 
Troy to New York, a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, the 
river is navigable by large steamboats. 

The principal streams which flow into the Hudson between 
Albany and New York are the Norman's Kill, on west bank, two 
miles south of Albany ; the Mourdener's Kill, at Castleton, eight 
miles below Albany, on the east bank ; Coxsackie Creek, on west 
bank, seventeen miles below Albany ; Kinderhook Creek, six 
miles north of Hudson ; Catskill Creek, six miles south of Hud- 
son ; Roeliffe Jansen's Creek, on east bank, seven miles south of 
Hudson ; the Esopus Creek, which empties at Saugerties ; the 
Rondout Creek, at Rondout ; the Wappingers, at New Ham- 
burgh ; the Fishkill, at Matteawan, opposite Newburgh ; the 
Peekskill Creek, and Croton River. The course of the River is 
nearly north and south, and drains a comparatively narrow val- 
ley. 

It is emphatically the " River of the Mountains," as it rises in 
the Adirondacks and flows seaward east of the Helderbergrs, 
the Catskills, the Shawangunks, through twenty miles of the 
Highlands and along the base of the Palisades. More than 
any other river it preserves the character of its origin, and the 
following apostrophe from the writer's poem, " The Hudson," 
condenses its continuous mountain-and-lake-like quality : 



THE HUDSON. 27 

O Hudson, mountain born and free, 
Thy youth a deep impression takes, 

For, mountain-guarded to the sea, 
Thy course is but a chain of lakes. 

The First Settlement of the Hudson.— In 1610 a Dutch 
ship visited Manhattan to trade with the Indians and was soon 
followed by others on like enterprise. In 1613 Adrian Black 
came with a few comrades and remained the winter. In 1614 
the merchants of North Holland organized a company and ob- 
tained from the States General a charter to trade in the New 
Netherlands, and soon after a colony built a few houses and a fort 
near the Battery. The entire island was purchased from the In- 
dians in 1624 for the sum of sixty guilders or about twenty-four 
dollars. A fort was built at Albany in 1623 and known as 
Fort Aurania or Fort Orange. From Wassenaer's "Historie 
van Europa," 1621-1632, as translated in the 3d volume of 
the Documentary History of New York, a castle— Fort Nas- 
sau—was built in 1624, on an island on the north side of the 
River Montagne, now called Mauritius. "But as the natives 
there were somewhat discontented, and not easily managed, the 
projectors abandoned it, intending now to plant a colony among 
the Maikans, (Mahicans), a nation lying twenty-five miles (Amer- 
ican measure seventy-five miles) on both sides of the river, up- 
wards." In another document we learn that " The West India 
Company being chartered, a vessel of 130 lasts, called the New 
Netherland, (whereof Cornelius Jacobs, of Hoorn, was skipper), 
with thirty families, mostly Walloons, was equipped in the spring 
of 1623." 

In the beginning of May they entered the Hudson, found a 



28 THE HUDSON. 

Frenchman lying in the mouth of the river, who would erect the 
arms of the King 1 of France there, but the Hollanders would not 
permit him, opposing it by commission from the Lord's States 
General and the Directors of the West India Company, and " in 
order not to be frustrated therein, they convoyed the French- 
man out of the rivers." This having been done, they sailed 
up the Maikans, 140 miles, near which they built and completed 
a fort, named " Orange," with four bastions, on an island, by 
them called " Castle Island." This was probably the island be- 
low Castleton, now known as Baern Island, where the first white 
child was born on the Hudson. 

In another volume we read that " a colony was planted in 1625 
on the Manhetes Island, where a fort was staked out by Master 
Kryn Fredericke, an engineer. The counting-house is kept in a 
stone building thatched with reed ; the other houses are of the 
bark of trees. There are thirty ordinary houses on the east side 
of the river, which runs nearly north and south." This is the 
description of New York City when Charles the First was King 
of England. 

Moreover, we should not forget that Communipaw outranks New 
York in antiquity, and, according to Knickerbocker, whose quiet 
humor is always read and re-read with pleasure, might justly be 
considered the Mother Colony. For lo ! the sage Oloffe Van Kort- 
landt dreamed a dream, and the good St. Nicholas came riding 
over the tops of the trees, and descended upon the island of 
Manhattan and sat himself down and smoked, "and the smoke 
ascended in the sky, and formed a cloud overhead; and 
Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and climbed up to the top 
of one of the tallest trees, and saw that the smoke spread over a 



THE HUDSON. 29 

great extent of country ; and, as he considered it more atten- 
tively, he fancied that the great volume assumed a variety of 
marvelous forms, where, in dim obscurity, he saw shadowed out 
palaces and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a mo- 
ment, and then passed away." So New York, like Alba Longa 
and Rome, and other cities of antiquity, was under the imme- 
diate care of its tutelar saint. Its destiny was foreshadowed, for 



OLOFFE VAN CORTLANDT'S DREAM. 

now the palaces and domes and lofty spires are real and genuine, 
and something more than dreams are made of. 

Tlie Original Manors and Patents.— According to a map 
of the Province of New York, published in 1779, the Phillips- 
burg Patent embraced a large part of Westchester County. 
North of this was the Manor of Cortland, reaching from Tarry- 



30 THE HUDSON. 

town to Anthony's Nose. Above this was the Phillipse Patent, 
reaching 1 to the mouth of Fishkill Creek, embracing- Putnam 
County. Between Fishkill Creek and the Wappingers Creek 
was the Rombout Patent. The Shuyler Patent embraced a few 
square miles in the vicinity of Poug-hkeepsie. Above this was the 
purchase of Falconer & Company, and east of this tract what 
was known as the Great Nine Partners. Above the Falconer 
Purchase was the Henry Beekman Patent, reaching to Esopus 
Island, and east of this the Little Nine Partners. Above the 
Beekman Patent was the Schuyler Patent. Then the Manor of 
Livingrston, reaching- from Rhinebeck to Catskill Station, oppo- 
site Catskill. Above this Rensselaerwick, reaching north to a 
point opposite Coeymans. The Manor of Rensselaer extended 
on both sides of the river to a line running- nearly east and west, 
just above Troy. North and west of this Manor was the County 
of Albany, since divided into Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washing-ton, 
Schoharie, Greene and Albany. The Rensselaer Manor was the 
only one that reached across the river. The west bank of the 
Hudson, below the Rensselaer Manor, is simply indicated on this 
map of 1779 as Ulster and Orange Counties. 

New Amsterdam. — For about fifty years after the Dutch 
Settlement the island of Manhattan was known as New Amster- 
dam. Washington Irving, in his Knickerbocker History, has 
surrounded it with a loving halo and thereby given to the early 
records of New York the most picturesque background of any 
State in the Union. Among other playful allusions to the In- 
dian names he takes the word Manna-hatta of Robert Juet to 
mean "the island of manna," or in other words a land flowing- 
with milk and honey. He refers humorously to the Yankees as 



THE HUDSON. 31 

" an ingenious people who out-bargain them in the market, out- 
speculate them on the exchange, out-top them in fortune, and 
run up mushroom palaces so high that the tallest Dutch family 
mansion has not wind enough left for its weather-cock." 

What would the old burgomaster think now of the mounti.no- 
palaces of trade and the piled up stories of our Commercial 
Buildings? In fact the highest structure Washington Irvine 
himself ever saw in New York was a nine-story sugar refinery. 
With elevators running two hundred feet a minute, there seems 
no limit to these modern mammoths. 

From the very beginning there was a quiet jealousy between 
the Dutch Settlement on the Hudson and the English Settlers in 
Massachusetts. To quote from an old English history, " it was 
the original purpose of the Pilgrims to locate near Nova Scotia, 
but, upon better consideration, they decided to seat themselves 
more to the southward on the bank of Hudson's River which 
falls into the sea at New York." 

To this end "they contracted with some merchants who were 
willing to be adventurers with them in their intended settlement 
and were proprietors of the country, but the contract bore too 
heavy upon them, and made them the more easy in their disap- 
pointment. Their agents in England hired the Mayflower, and, 
after a stormy voyage, "fell in with Cape Cod on the 9th of 
November. Here they refreshed themselves about half a day 
and then tacked about to the southward for Hudson's River." 

' Encountering a storm they became entangled in dangerous 
shoals and breakers and were driven back again to the Cape." 
Thus Plymouth became the first English settlement of New Eng- 
land. Another historian says that it was their purpose " to set- 



32 THE HUDSON. 

tie on the Connecticut Coast near Fairfield County, lying between 
the Connecticut and Hudson's River." 

From the very first the Dutch occupation was considered by 
the English as illegal, It was undoubtedly part of the country 
the coasts of which were first viewed by Sebastian Cabot, who 
sailed with five English ships from Bristol in May, 1498, and as 
such was afterwards included in the original province of Vir- 
ginia. It was also within the limits of the country granted by 
King James to the Western Company, but, before it could be set- 
tled, the Dutch occupancy took place, and, in the interest of 
peace, a license was granted by King James. 

The Dutch thus made their settlement before the Puritans 
were planted in New England, and from their first coming, "being 
seated in Islands and at the mouth of a good River their planta- 
tions were in a thriving condition, and they begun, in Holland, 
to promise themselves vast things from their new colony." 

Sir Samuel Argal in 1617 or 1618, on his way from Virginia to 
New Scotland, insulted the Dutch and destroyed their planta- 
tions. "To guard against further molestations they secured a 
License from King James to build Cottages and to plant for traf- 
fic as well as subsistence, pretending it was only for the con- 
veniency of their ships touching there for fresh water and fresh 
provisions in their voyage to Brazil ; but they little by little ex- 
tended their limits every way, built Towns, fortified them and 
became a flourishing colony." 

"In an island called Manhattan, at the mouth of Hudson's 
River, they built a City which they called New Amsterdam, and 
the river was called by them the Great River. The bay to the 
east of it had the name of Nassau given to it. About one hun- 



THE HUDSON. 33 

red and fifty miles up the River they built a Fort which they 
called Orange Fort and from thence drove a profitable trade 
with the Indians who came overland as far as from Quebec to 
deal with them." 

The Dutch Colonies were therefore in a very thriving- con- 
dition when they were attacked by the English. The justice of 
this war has been freely criticised even by English writers, " be- 
cause troops were sent to attack New Amsterdam before the 
Colony had any notice of the war." 

The Encyclopaedia Britannica thus briefly puts the history of 
those far-off days when New York was a town of about 1500 
inhabitants : " The English Government was hostile to any other 
occupation of the New World than its own. In 1621 James I. 
claimed sovereignty over New Netherland by right of ' occu- 
pancy.' In 1632 Charles I. reasserted the English title of 
'first discovery, occupation and possession.' In 1654 Cromwell 
ordered an expedition for its conquest and the New England 
Colonies had engaged their support. The treaty with Holland 
arrested their operations and recognized the title of the Dutch. 
In 1664 Charles the Second resolved upon a conquest of New 
Netherland. The immediate excuse was the loss to the revenue 
of the English Colonies by the smuggling practices of their 
Dutch neighbors. A patent was granted to the Duke of York 
giving to him all the lands and rivers from the west side of the 
Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." 

" On the 29th of August an English Squadron under the direc- 
tion of Col. Richard Nicolls, the Duke's Deputy Governor, 
appeared off the Narrows, and on Sept. 8th New Amsterdam, 
defenseless against the force, was formally surrendered by Stuy- 



34 THE HUDSON. 

vesant. In 1673 (August 7th) war being declared bei7ween 
England and Holland a Dutch squadron surprised New York, 
captured the City and restored the Dutch authority, and the 
names of New Netherland and New Amsterdam. But in July, 
1674, a treaty of peace restored New York to English rule. A 
new patent was issued to the Duke of York, and Major Edmund 
Andros was appointed Governor." 

New York.— On the 10th of November, 1674, the Province of 
New Netherland was surrendered to Governor Major Edmund 
Andros on behalf of his Britannic Majesty. The letter sent by 
Governor Andros to the Dutch Governor is interesting in this 
connection: " Being arrived to this place with orders to re- 
ceive from you in the behalf of his Majesty of Great Britain, 
pursuant to the late articles of peace with the States Generals of 
the United Netherlands, the New Netherlands and Dependen- 
cies, now under your command, I have herewith, by Capt. 
Philip Carterett and Ens. Caesar Knafton, sent you the respective 
orders from the said States Generall, the States of Zealand and 
Admirality of Amsterdam to that effect, and desire you'll please 
to appoint some short time for it. Our soldiers having been long 
aboard, I pray you answer by these gentlemen, and I shall be 
ready to serve you in what may lay in my power. Being from 
aboard his Majesty's ship, The Diamond, at anchor near. Your 
very humble servant. Staten Island this 22d Oct., 1674." After 
nineteen days' deliberation, which greatly annoyed Governor 
Andros, New Amsterdam was transferred from Dutch to Eng- 
lish authority. 

1 'In 1683 Thomas Dongan succeeded Andros. A general As- 
sembly, the first under the English rule, met in October, 1683, 




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OLD TIME HUDSON VOYAGERS. 



THE HUDSON. 37 

and adopted a Charter of Liberties, which was confirmed by the 
Duke. In August, 1684, a new covenant was made with the 
Iroquois, who formally acknowledged the jurisdiction of Great 
Britain, but not subjection. By the accession of the Duke of 
York to the English throne the Duchy of New York became a 
royal province. The Charters of the New England Colonies 
were revoked, and together with New York and New Jersey they 
were consolidated into the dominion of New England. Dongan 
was recalled and Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned Govern- 
or General. He assumed his-vice regal authority August 11th, 
1688. The Assembly which James had abolished in 1686 was re- 
established, and in May declared the rights and privileges of the 
people, reaffirming the principles of the repealed Charter of 
Liberties of October 30th, 1683." 

From this time on to the Revolution of 1776 there is one con- 
tinual struggle between the Royal Governors and the General 
Assembly. The Governor General had the power of dissolving 
the Assembly, but the Assembly had the power of granting 
money. British troops were quartered in New York which in- 
creased the irritation. The Conquest of Canada left a heavy 
burden upon Great Britain, a part of which their Parliament 
attempted to shift to the shoulders of the Colonies. 

A general Congress of the Colonies, held in New York in 1765, 
protested against the Stamp Act and other oppressive ordin- 
ances and they were in part repealed. 

A Page of Patriotism.— During the long political agita- 
tion New York, the most English of the colonies in her manners 
and feelings, was in close harmony with the Whig leaders of 
England. She firmly adhered to the principle of the sovereignty 



38 THE HUDSON. 

of the people which she had inscribed on her ancient ' ' Charter 
of Liberties." Although largely dependent upon commerce she 
was the first to recommend a non-importation of English mer- 
chandise as a measure of retaliation against Britain, and she was 
the first also to invite a general congress of all the colonies. On 
the breaking out of hostilities New York immediately joined the 
patriot cause. The English authority was overthrown and the 
government passed to a provincial congress. 

New York Sons of Liberty.— In 1767, in the eighth year 
of the reign of George III. there was issued a document in 
straightforward Saxon, and Sir Henry Moore, Governor-in-Chief 
over the Province of New York, offered fifty pounds to discover 
the author or authors. The paper read as follows : " Whereas, 
a glorious stand for Liberty did appear in the Resentment shown 
to a Set of Miscreants under the Name of Stamp Masters, in the 
year 1765, and it is now feared that a set of Gentry called Com- 
missioners (I do not mean those lately arrived at Boston), whose 
odious Business is of a similar nature, may soon make their ap- 
pearance amongst us in order to execute their detestable office : 
It is therefore hoped that every votary of that celestial Goddess 
Liberty, will hold themselves in readiness to give them a proper 
welcome. Rouse, my Countrymen, Rouse ! (Signed) Pro Patria." 

In December, 1769, a stirring address ' ; To the Betrayed In- 
habitants of the City and County of New York," signed by a Son 
of Liberty, was also published, asking the people to do their duty 
in matters pending between them and Britain. "Imitate," the 
writer said, " the noble examples of the friends of Liberty in 
England ; who, rather than be enslaved, contend for their rights 
with king, lords and commons ; and will you suffer your liber- 



THE HUDSON. 39 

ties to be torn from you by your Representatives ? tell it not in 
Boston ; publish it not in the streets of Charles-town. You have 
means yet left to preserve a unanimity with the brave Boston- 
ians and Carolinians : and to prevent the accomplishment of the 
designs of tyrants." 

Another proclamation, offering- a reward of fifty pounds, was 
published by the " Honorable Cad walader Golden, Esquire, His 
Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the 
Province of New York and the territories depending thereon in 
America," with another " God Save the King " at the end of it. 
But the people who commenced to write Liberty with a capital 
letter and the word " king " in lower case type were not daunted. 
Captain Alexander McDougal was arrested as the supposed au- 
thor. He was imprisoned eighty-one days. He was subsequently 
a member of the Provincial Convention, in 1775 was ap- 
pointed Colonel of the first New York Regiment, and in 1777 rose 
to the rank of Major-General in the U. S. Army. New York City 
could well afford a monument to the Sons of Liberty. She has a 
right to emphasize this period of her history, for her citizens pass- 
ed the first resolution to import nothing from the mother coun- 
try, burned ten boxes of stamps sent from England before any 
other colony or city had made even a show of resistance, and 
when the Declaration was read, pulled down the leaden statue 
of George III. from its pedestal in Bowling Green, and moulded 
it into Republican Bullets. 

In 1699 the population of New York was about 6,000. In 1800, 
it reached 60,000 ; and the growth since that date is almost in- 
credible. It is amusing to hear elderly people speak of the 
"outskirts of the city " lying north of the City Hall, and of the 



40 THE HUDSON. 

drives in the country above Canal Street. In the Documentary 
History of New York, a map of a section of New York appears 
as it was in 1793, when the Gail, Work House, and Bridewell oc- 
cupied the site of the City Hall, with two ponds to the north— 
East Collect Pond and Little Collect Pond,— sixty feet deep and 
about a quarter of a mile in diameter, the outlet of which crossed 
Broadway at Canal Street and found its way to the Hudson. 
(On this pond John Fitch claims to have launched the first boat 
propelled by steam, some six years before Fulton made trial of 
his boat on the river Seine in France, and ten years prior to his 
putting- into operation his boat Clermont in New York.) In 1830, 
the population of New York was 202,000 ; in 1850, 515,000 ; in 
1860, 805,000; in 1870, 942,000; in 1880, 1,250,000; in 1892, 1,801,- 
739. This is independent of Brooklyn, whose population has in- 
creased from a city of 2,000, in 1800, to a city of 957,163, in 1892. 
So that the port of New York, with the cities which encircle it, 
represents a population of at least three millions of people, not 
to speak of its outskirts and dependencies, which would make a 
total population of at least three millions and a half. 

Brooklyn. — In June, 1636, the first land was bought on Long- 
Island ; and in 1667 the Ferry Town, opposite New York was 
known by the name " Breuckelen," signifying "broken land," 
but the name was not generally accepted until after the Revolu- 
tion. Of the 950,000 who reside in Brooklyn it is said that 120,- 
000 go daily to New York, as she is in fact a part of the great 
emporium. Many of her streets, already six miles in length, are 
stretching out rapidly in every direction. Columbia Heights, 
Prospect Park, Clinton Ave., St. Mark's Place, Hancock Street 
and Stuyvesant Heights are among the favored spots for residence. 



THE HUDSON. 41 

Jersey City occupies the ground once known as Paulus Hook, 
the farm of William Kieft, Director General of the Dutch West 
India Company. It is now a city of 150,000, and its water front, 
from opposite Bartholdi Statue to Hoboken, is conspicuously 
marked by Railroad Terminal piers, Factories, Elevators, etc. 
Bergen is the oldest settlement in New Jersey. It was 
founded in 1616 by Dutch Colonists to the New Netherlands and 
received its name from Bergen in Norway. New York, Brook- 
lyn, and Jersey City, practically now one city, are destined to be 
the greatest city in the world. 

Hudson River Steamboats. — An accurate history of the 
growth and development of steam navigation on the Hudson, 
from the building of the "Clermont" by Robert Fulton to the 
building of the superb steamers, the " New York " and "Albany " 
would form a very interesting book. The first seven years pro- 
duced seven steamers, to wit : 

Clermont, built in 1807 

North River, built in 1808 166 tons 

Car of Neptune, built in 1809 295 " 

Hope, built in 1811 280 " 

Perseverance, built in 1811 280 " 

Paragon, built in 1811 331 " 

. Richmond, built in 1813 370 " 

It makes one smile to read the newspaper notices of those 

days, and we give some of them for the benefit of the traveler. 

The time was rather long, and the fare rather high — thirty-six 

hours -to Albany, fare seven dollars. 

From the A bany Gazette, dated September, 1807. 
"The North River Steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry 
(now Jersey City) on Friday the 4th of September, at 9 in the 



42 THE HUDSON. 

morning 1 , and arrive at Albany at 9 in the afternoon on Saturday. 
Provisions, good berths, and accommodation are provided. The 
charge to each passenger is as follows : 

To Newburg Dols. 3, Time 14 hours. 

Poughkeepsie " 4, " 17 " 

Esopus " 5, " 20 " 

Hudson " 5i, " 30 " 

Albany " 7, " 36 " 

For places apply to Wm. Vandervoort, No. 48 Courtland 

street, on the corner of Greenwich street, September 2d, 1807." 

Extract from tlie New York Evening Post, dated October 2d, 1807. 

Mr. Fulton's new-invented steamboat, which is fitted up in a 
neat style for passengers, and is intended to run from New York 
to Albany as a packet, left here this morning with ninety pas- 
sengers, against a strong head wind. Notwithstanding which, 
it is judged that she moved through the waters at the rate of six 
miles an hour. 

Extract from the Albany Gazette, dated October 5th, 1S07. 

Friday, October 2d, 1807, the steamboat (Clermont) left New 
York at ten o'clock a. m., against a stormy tide, very rough 
water, and a violent gale from the north. She made a headway 
beyond the most sanguine expectations, and without being 
rocked by the waves. 

Arrived at Albany, October 4th, at 10 o'clock p. m., being 
detained by being obliged to come to anchor, owing to a gale 
and having one of her paddle wheels torn away by running foul 
of a sloop. 

The following was recently recopied in the Poughkeepsie 
Eagle, as an old time reminiscence : 



THE HUDSON. . 43 

To Pougnkeepsie from New York in Seventeen Hours. 

— The first steamboat on the Hudson River passed Poughkeep- 
sie August 17th, 1807, and in June, 1808, the owners of the boat 
caused the following advertisement to be published in prominent 
papers along the river : 

STEAMBOAT. 

FOR THE INFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC. 

The Steamboat will leave New York for Albany every Satur- 
day afternoon exactly at 6 o'clock, and will pass : 

West Point, about -4 o'clock Sunday morning. 

Newburgh, 7 o'clock Sunday morning. 

Poughkeepsie, 11 o'clock Sunday morning. 

Esopus, 2 o'clock in the afternoon. 

Red Hook, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. 

Catskill, 7 o'clock in the afternoon. 

Hudson, 8 o'clock in the evening. 

She will leave Albany for New York every Wednesday morn- 
ing exactly at 8 o'clock, and pass : 

Hudson, about 3 in the afternoon. 

Esopus, 8 in the evening. 

Poughkeepsie, 12 at night. 

Newburgh, 4 Thursday morning. 

West Point, 7 Thursday morning. 

As the time at which the boat may arrive at the different 
places above mentioned may vary an hour, more or less, accord- 
ing to the advantage or disadvantage of wind and tide, those 
who wish to come on board will see "the necessity of being on 
the spot an hour before the time. Persons wishing to come on 
board from any other landing than these here specified can 



44 THE HUDSON. 

calculate the time the boat will pass and be ready on her arrival. 
Innkeepers or boatmen who bring- passengers on board or take 
them ashore from any part of the river will be allowed one 
shilling for each person. 

PRICES OF PASSAGE— FROM NEW YORK. 

To West Point $2 30 

To Newburgh 3 00 

To Poughkeepsie.. 3 50 

To Esopus 4 00 

To Red Hook 4 50 

To Hudson 5 00 

To Albany 7 00 

FROM ALBANY. 

To Hudson $2 00 

To Red Hook 3 00 

To Esopus 3 50 

To Poughkeepsie 4 00 

To Newburgh and West Point 4 50 

To New York 7 00 

All other passengers are to pay at the rate of one dollar fop 
every twenty miles, and a half dollar for every meal they may 
eat. 

Children from 1 to 5 years of age to pay one-third price and 
to sleep with the persons under whose care they are. 

Young persons from 5 to 15 years of age to pay half price, 
provided they sleep two in a berth, and the whole price for each 
one who requests to occupy a whole berth. 

Servants who pay two-thirds price are entitled to a berth ; 
they pay half price if they do not have a berth. 

Every person paying full price is allowed sixty pounds of bag- 
gage ; if less than full price forty pounds. They are to pay at 



THE HUDSON. 45 

the rate of three cents per pound for surplus baggage. Store- 
keepers who wish to carry light and valuable merchandise can 
be accommodated on paying three cents a pound." 

Steamers "New York" and "Albany."— As the cradle of 
successful steam navigation was rocked on the Hudson, it is fit- 
ting that the Day Line Steamers, the " New York " and "Albany " 
should excel all others in beauty, grace and speed. There is no 
comparison between these river palaces and the steamboats on 
the Rhine or any river in Europe, as to equipment, comfort and 
rapidity. To make another reference to the great tourist route 
of Europe, the distance from Cologne to Coblenz is 60 miles, the 
same as from New York to Newburgh. It takes the Rhine 
steamers from seven to eight hours (as will be seen in Baedek- 
er's Guide to that river) going up the stream, and from four and 
a half to five hours returning with the current. The " New 
York "or the "Albany"' leaves 22d Street at 9 a. m., reaching 
Newburgh at 12.25, covering the same distance in three hours 
and twenty-five minutes, either with or without tide, wind or 
current. Probably no train on the best equipped railroad in 
our country reaches its stations with greater regularity than 
these boats make their various landings. It astonishes a Missis- 
sippi or Missouri traveler to see the captain standing like a 
train-conductor, with watch in hand, to let off the gang-plank 
and pull the bell, at the very moment of the advertised schedule. 

One of the most humorous incidents of the writer's journeying 
up and down the Hudson, was the " John-Gilpin-experience" of 
a western man who got off at West Point a few years ago. It 
was at that time the first landing of the steamer after leaving 
New York. 



46 THE HUDSON. 

As he was accustomed to the Mississippi style of waiting at 
the various towns he thought he would go up and take a look at 
the "hill." The boat was off and " so was he ; " with wife and 
children shaking their hands and handkerchiefs in an excited 
manner from the gang-plank. Some one at the stern of the 
steamer shouted to him to cross the river and take the train to 
Poughkeepsie. 

Every one was on the lookout for him at the Poughkeepsie 
landing, and, just as the steamer was leaving the dock, he came 
dashing down Main street from the railroad station, but too late. 
Then not only wife and children but the entire boat saluted him 
and the crowded deck blossomed with handkerchiefs. Some one 
shouted "catch us at Rhinebeck." After leaving Rhinebeck 
the train appeared, and on passing the steamer, a lone hand- 
kerchief waved from the rear of the platform. At Hudson an 
excited but slightly disorganized gentleman appeared to the 
great delight of his family, and every one else, for the passengers 
had all taken a lively interest in the chase. "Well,'' he says, 
"I declare, the way this boat lands, and gets off again, beats 
anything I ever see, and I have lived on the Mississippi nigh on 
to a quarter of a century," 

The following facts will be of interest to the traveler, con- 
densed from an admirable description furnished by the courtesy 
of the Day Line Company. 

The hull of the " New York," with the exception of the deck- 
frame, is made of iron throughout. It is 311 feet long, breadth 
over all 74 feet, with a tonnage of 1,550 gross tons. It is a stand- 
ard American beam engine, with a cylinder 75 inches in diame- 
ter and 12 feet stroke of piston, and develops 3,850 horse power. 



— 

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Q 

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THE HUDSON. 49 

Steam steering 1 gear is used. One of the most admirable fea- 
tures is her " feathering - " wheels, the use of which not only adds 
materially to her speed but does away with the jar or tremor 
common to boats having the ordinary paddle-wheels. The ex- 
terior of the "New York" is painted white and relieved with 
tints and gold. The interior is finished in hard-wood cabinet 
work, ash being used forward of the shaft on the main deck, and 
mahogany aft and in the dining-room. Ash is also used in the 
grand saloons on 1>he promenade deck. The private parlors on 
the " New York" are provided with bay windows and are very 
luxuriantly finished. In the saloons are paintings by Albert 
Bierstadt, J. F. Cropsey, Walter Satterlee and David Johnson. 
The dinmg-room on the "New York" is located on the main 
deck aft ; a feature that will commend itself to tourists, since, 
while enjoying their meals, they will not be deprived from view- 
ing the noble scenery through which they are passing. 

The " Albany " is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful steam- 
ers ever constructed. Her graceful lines and great deck room 
forward are very noticeable and command marked attention. 
Her hull is of iron, 325 feet long, breadth of beam over alL 
75 feet, her tonnage is 1,415 gross tons, and her engine develops 
3,200 horse power. The stroke is 12 feet, the diameter of the 
cylinder is 73 inches and, like the " New York," furnished with 
" feathering " wheel. On her trial trip she ran from New York 
to Poughkeepsie, a distance of 75 miles, in 3 hours and seven 
minutes. Steam steering gear is also used on the "Albany," 
thus insuring ease and precision in handling her. The wood- 
work on the main deck and in the upper saloons is all hard wood ; 
mahogany, ash and maple tastefully carved. Wide, easy stair- 



5 q THE HUDSON. 

cases lead to the main saloon and upper decks. Rich Axminster 
carpets cover the floors, and mahogany tables and furniture of 
antique design and elegant finish make up the appointments of a 
handsomely furnished drawing-room. Palmer's ideal conception 
of " June," a life-size marble bust of a young girl, ornaments the 
head of the grand staircase. The walls are adorned with <oil 
paintings by Emile Princhart of Paris, F. D. Briscoe of Phila- 
delphia, and Yzquierdo of Madrid, Spain. The richly furnished 
private parlors of the "Albany" are a notable feature, giving 
absolute seclusion and privacy to small parties and families. 
Another equally desirable feature is the elegant dining-room, 
also located on the main deek. While the carrying capacity of 
each steamer is 4,500, a license for 2,500 passengers only is ap- 
plied for, in order that there may be no disagreeable crowding. 

The Old Readies. — Early navigators divided the Hudson 
into fourteen " reaches " or distances from point to point as seen 
by one sailing up or down the river. In the slow days of uncer- 
tain sailing vessels these divisions meant more than in our 
time of "propelling steam," but they are still of practical and 
historic interest. 

The Great Chip Rock Reach extends from above Weehawken 
about eighteen miles to the boundary line of New York and New 
Jersey — (near Piermont.) The Palisades were known by the old 
D.utch settlers as the " Great Chip," and so styled in the Bergen 
Deed of Purchase, viz, the great chip above Weehawken. The 
Tappan Reach, on the east side of which dwelt the Manhattans, 
and on the west side the Saulrickans and the Tappans, extends 
about seven miles to Teller's Point. The third reach to a nar- 
row point called Haverstroo; then comes the Seglmdkers Reach, 



THE HUDSON. 51 

then Crescent Reach ; next Hoge's Reach, and then Vorsen Reach, 
which extends to Klinkersberg, or Storm King-, the north- 
ern portal of the Highlands. This is succeeded by Fisher's 
Reach where, on the east side once dwelt a race of savages 

called Pachami. " This reach," in the language of De Laet, 

l 
"extends to another narrow pass, where, on the west, is a point 

of land which juts out, covered with sand, opposite a bend in the 

river, on which another nation of savages — the Waoranecks — 

have their abode at a place called Esopus. Next, another reach, 

called Glaverach; then Bach rack; next Playsicr Reach, and 

Vaste Reach, as far as Hinnenhock ; then Hunter's Reach, 

as far as Kinderhook : and Fisher's Hook, near Shad Island, 

over which, on the east side, dwell the Mahicans." If these 

reaches seem valueless at present, there are 

Five Divisions of the Hudson — which possess interest 

for all, as they present an analysis easy to be remembered — 

divisions marked by something more substantial than sentiment 

or fancy, expressing five distinct characteristics : — 

1. The Palisades, an unbroken wall of rock for fifteen miles 
— Grandeur. 

2. The Tappan Zee, surrounded by the sloping hills of 
Nyack, Tarrytown, and Sleepy Hollow — Repose. 

3. The Highlands, where the Hudson for twenty miles plays 
"hide and seek" with "hills rock-ribbed and ancient as the 
sun" — Sublimity. 

4. The Hillsides for miles above and below Poughkeepsie-v 
The Picturesque. 

5. The Catskills, on the west, throned in queenly dignity — 
Beauty. 




"MORNING," BY ALFRED FREDERICKS. 



Gray streaks of dawn are faintly seen, 
The stars of half their light are shorn, 

The Hudson, with its banks of green, 
Lies tranquil in the early morn. 

Ye trembling shafts of glorious light, 
Dart from the east with golden gleam, 

Cleave the dark shield of fleeing night, 
And slay her with your arrowy beam. 



52 



MW YORK TO ALBANY. 



DESBROSSES STREET PIER TO TWENTY-SECOND STREET. 

The finely equipped steamers "New York" and "Albany," 
appropriately named from the terminal cities of the "Hudson 
by Daylight Trip,"' leave New York every morning- (except Sun- 
day) in Summer, (May to October) from Desbrosses Street Pier, 
at 8.40 a. m. and 22nd Street (N. R.) at 9 a. m., reaching Albany 
about 6 p. m. The general divisions, in accordance with steamer 
landings, form a simple and complete analysis for description of 
scenery and historic reference. 

Desbrosses Street Pier. — On leaving the lower landing a 
charming view is obtained of New York Harbor, the Narrows, 
Staten Island, the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty, and, in clear 
weather, far away to the South, the Highlands of Navisink, the 
first land to greet the eye of the ocean voyager. As the Steamer 
swings out into the stream the tourist is at once face to face 
with a rapidly changing panorama. Steamers arriving, with 
happy faces on their decks, from southern ports or distant lands ; 
others with waving handkerchiefs bidding good-bye to friends 
on crowded docks ; swift-shuttled ferry-boats, with hurrying 
passengers, supplying their homespun woof to the great warp of 
foreign or coastwise commerce ; noisy tug-boats, sombre as dray 
horses, drawing long lines of canal boats, or proud in the convoy 



54 THE HUDSON. 

of some Atlantic greyhound that has no yet slipped its leash ; 
dignified "Men of War" at anchor, flying the flags of many 
nations, happy excursion boats en route to sea-side resorts, scows, 
picturesque in their very clumsiness and uncouthness — all unite 
in a living kaleidescope of beauty. 

Across the river on the Jersey Shore we see extensive docks 
of great railways, with elevators and stations that seem like 
" knotted ends " of vast railway lines, lest they might forsooth, 
untwist and become irrecoverably tangled in approaching the 
Metropolis. Prominent among these are the Pennsylvania Bail- 
road for the South and West ; the Erie Railvxiy, the Delaware, 
Lackawanna and Western, and to the North above Hoboken the 
West Shore, serving also as starting point for the New York,On- 
tario and Western. Again the eye returns to the crowded 
Wharves and Warehouses of New York, reaching from Castle 
Garden beyond 30th Street, with forest-like masts and funnels of 
ocean steamships, and then to prominent buildings mounting 
higher and higher year by year along the city horizon, marking 
the course of Broadway from the Battery. Chief among these 
we behold the Manhattan Life Insurance Building, with cam- 
panile out topping the Masonic Temple of Chicago, and literally 
fulfilling the humor of old Knickerbocker in not leaving enough 
wind for even a breeze on Trinity spire. 

The Brooklyn tourist who connects with the Steamer by 
" Annex 1 ' will more fully note the majesty of these noble build- 
ings, which make London from the Thames look tame and in- 
significant in comparison with New York from the East River 
and the Hudson. In our rapid journey we have scarcely time to 
specify these "Skyey Structures " in their order from Bowling 



THE HUDSON. 55 

Green, viz : Washington Building - , Produce Exchange, the Red- 
Roofed Tower of the Cotton Exchange, the Equitable Building, 
Western Union, Mail and Express, Post Office Dome, Tribune 
Building, Dome of the World Building, Postal Building and the 
Mutual Reserve, all playing hide and seek with the distant piers 
of the Brooklyn Bridge. 

Tlie 22d Street Pier is now at hand, convenient of access to 
up-town dwellers, as the 23d Street car line crosses the island in- 
tersecting every ' ' up and down " surface or elevated road in the 
City, as does also the Grand, Vestry and Desbrosses Street at the 
lower landing. While the passengers are coming aboard we 
take pleasure in quoting the following from Baedeker's Guide 
to the United States: "The Photo-Panorama of the Hudson, 
published by the Bryant Union, 724 Temple Court, New York, 
(price $1.00) shows both sides of the River from New York to Al- 
bany, accurately represented from 800 consecutive photographs." 
This new and complete object-guide will be of service to the 
tourist, and can be found at the steamers' news stands, head of 
grand stairway of the " New York" and the "Albany,'' or it will 
be sent by publishers, postpaid, on receipt of price. 



56 



THE HUDSON. 



TWENTY-SECOND STREET TO YONKERS. 



The gang-plank is "drawn"' and the busy wharves and noisy 
streets are now behind us, pleasantly exchanged for views of lofty 
Palisades and tranquil shores. 

Just before touching at 22d Street Pier we passed on the Jersey 
Shore a wooded point with sightly building, known as Stevens' 
Castle, home of the late Commodore Stevens, founder of the 
Stevens' Institute of Technology. It will be remembered that he 
patriotically constructed at his own expense during the Civil 
War, the Stevens' Battery for the defense of the harbor, which 
was, however, never used. Above this point are the Elysian 
Fields, north of Hoboken, known in early days as a quiet and 
pleasant resort but now greatly changed in the character of its 
visitors. On the left will also be seen the dome and tower of St. 
Michael's Monastery, then Union Hill, and above this 

Weehawken with its sad story of the duel between Hamilton 

and Burr. A monument once marked the spot erected by the St. 

Andrews Society of New York on the narrow ledge of rock 

where Hamilton fell early in the morning of July 11th, 1804, but 

it was almost chipped away by relic hunters, until at last it was 

entirely removed previous to the completion and opening of the 

West Shore Railroad in 1883. The quarrel between this great 

Statesman and his malignant rival was, perhaps, more personal 

than political. It is said that Hamilton, in accordance With our 

old-time code of honor, accepted the challenge, but fired into the 

air, while Burr with fiendish cruelty took deliberate revenge. 

Burr was never forgiven by the citizens of New York and from 



THE HUDSON. 57 

that hour walked its streets shunned and despised. Among the 
many poetic tributes penned at the time to the memory of Ham- 
ilton, perhaps the best was by a poet whose name is now scarcely 
remembered, Mr. Robert C. Sands. A fine picture of Hamilton 
will be found in the New York Chamber of Commerce where the 
writer was recently shown the following concise paragraph from 
Talleyrand : " The three greatest men of my time, in my opinion, 
were Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles James Fox and Alexander 
Hamilton and the greatest of the three was Hamilton," 

The plain marble slab which stood in the face of the monu- 
ment is still preserved by a member of the King family. It is 
thirty-six inches long by twenty-six and a half inches wide and 
bears the following inscription: "As an expression of their af- 
fectionate regard to his Memory and their deep regret for his 
loss, the St. Andrew's Society of the State of New York have 
erected this Monument." 

Quite a history attaches to this stone (graphically condensed 
by an old gardener of the King estate): " It stood in the face of 
the monument for sixteen years, and was read by thousands, but 
by 1820 the pillar had become an eyesore to the enlightened 
public sentiment of the age, and an agitation was begun in the 
public prints for its removal. It was not, however, organized 
effort, but the order of one man, that at length demolished the 
pillar. This man was Captain Deas, a peace-loving gentleman, 
strongly opposed to duelling and brawls, and on seeing a party 
approaching the grounds often interposed and sometimes suc- 
ceeded in effecting a reconciliation. He became tired of seeing 
the pillar in his daily walks, and, in 1820, ordered his men to re- 
move it and deposit the slab containing the inscription in one of 



58 THE HUDSON. 

the outbuildings of the estate. This was done. But a few 
months afterward the slab was stolen, and nothing more was 
heard of it until thirteen years later, when Mr. Hugh Maxwell, 
President of the St. Andrew's Society, discovered it in a junk 
shop in New York. He at once purchased it and presented 
it to Mr. James G. King, who about this time came into posses- 
sion of the Deas property, where it has since been carefully 
preserved." 

The gardener also said : ' ' the river road beneath us is cut di- 
rectly through the spot. Originally it was simply a narrow and 
grassy shelf close up under the cliffs, six feet wide and eleven 
paces long. A great cedar tree stood at one end, and this sand- 
bowlder, which we have also preserved, was at the other. It was 
about twenty feet above the river and was reached by a steep 
rocky path leading up from the Hudson, and, as there was then 
no road or path even along the base of the cliffs, it could be 
reached only by boats." The first duel at Weehawken of which 
there is any record was in 1799, between Aaron Burr and John 
B. Church (Hamilton's brother-in-law). The parties met and 
exchanged shots ; neither was wounded. The seconds then in- 
duced Church to offer an apology and the affair terminated. 
The last duel was fought there September 28th, 1845, and ended 
in a farce, the pistols being loaded with cork — a fitting termina- 
tion to a relic of barbarism. 

On the hills above Weehawken stood the mansion of the old 
King family, made gayly prominent, in recent years by a Sum- 
mer Garden known as the El Dorado. The iron structure in 
front of the building carries two elevators and along its top runs 
a railway to the garden, and the Guttenberg race track. Be- 



THE HUDSON. 59 

yond this will be noticed the square tower of the Union Hill 
Water Works which supply Hoboken, West Hoboken and 
Union Hill with water from the Hackensack. Passing - the docks 
of the Manhattan Oil Company and the West Shore Railroad, and 
wondering at the prominent white building perched on the hill- 
side, until some friend tells us it is a lager beer brewery, we 
turn to the east bank to see the Rosevelt Hospital, a brick struc- 
ture with high pointed spire. We pass the New York Orphan 
Asylum at Sixty-fifth street and see the Dakota Flats in the dis- 
tance at the corner of 72d Street and Central Park. 

It will be remembered that Central Park reaches from 59th 
Street to 110th Street, at an average distance of five blocks from 
the Hudson and about six or seven blocks from the East River. 
Between this and the Hudson, reaching from 71st to 127th. Street, 
is the beautiful 

Riverside Park and Drive, following for the most part the 
top of the bluff. Near the northern end of the Drive, on its most 
commanding point, was buried August 8th, 1885, General Ulysses 
S. Grant. An attempt to move his body to Washington was 
made some time ago in Congress but overwhelmingly defeated, 
and a massive memorial monument is now being erected worthy 
of the great soldier to mark the site for all time. The speech 
made by Congressman Amos Cummings in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, was a happy condensation of the facts. He fittingly 
said : " New York was General Grant's chosen home. He tried 
many other places but finally settled there. A house was given 
to him here in Washington, but he abandoned it in the most 
marked manner to buy one for himself in New York. He was a 
familiar form upon her streets. He presided at her public 



60 THE HUDSON. 

meetings and at all times took an active interest in her local af- 
fairs. He was perfectly at home there and was charmed with its 
associations. It was the spot on earth chosen by himself as the 
most agreeable to him ; he meant to live and die there. It was 
his home when he died. He closed his career without ever once 
expressing a wish to leave it, but always to remain in it. 

Men are usually buried at their homes. Washington was 
buried there : Lincoln was buried there : Garibaldi was buried 
there ; Gambetta was buried there, and Ericsson was buried, not 
at the Capital of Sweden, but at his own home. Those who say 
that New York is backward in giving for any commendable 
thing either do not know her or they belie her. Wherever in 
the civilized world there has been disaster by fire or flood, or 
from earthquake or pestilence, she has been among the foremost 
in the field of givers and has remained there when others have 
departed. It is a shame to speak of her as parsimonious or as 
failing in any benevolent duty. Those who charge her with 
being dilatory should remember that haste is not always speed:* 
It took more than a quarter of a century to erect Bunker Hill 
Monument ; the ladies of Boston completed it. It took nearly 
half a century to erect a monument to George Washington in the 
City founded by him, named for him, and by his act made the 
Capital of the Nation ; the Government completed it. New 
York has already shown that she will do far better than this. 5 - 

The Thirteen Elm Trees, about ten or fifteen minutes' walk 
from General Grant's Tomb, were planted by Alexander Hamil- 
ton in his door-yard, a century ago, to commemorate the thir- 
teen original States. This property was recently purchased by 
the late Hon. Orlando Potter, of New York, with the following 



THE HUDSON. g^ 

touch of patriotic sentiment : "These famous trees are located 
in the northeast corner of One Hundred and Forty-third street 
and Convent Avenue ; or, on lots fourteen and fifteen," said the 
auctioneer to the crowd that gathered at the sale. ''In order 
that the old property with the trees may be kept unbroken, 
should the purchaser desire, we will sell lots 8 to 21 inclusive in 
one batch! How much am I offered?"' " One hundred thou- 
sand dollars," quietly responded Mr. Potter. A ripple of excite- 
ment ran through the crowd, and the bid was quickly run up to 
$120,000 by speculators. "One hundred and twenty-five thou- 
sand," said Mr. Potter. Then there were several thousand dol- 
lar bids, and the auctioneer said : ; ' Do I hear one hundred and 
thirty ? " Mr. Potter nodded. He nodded again at the " thirty- 
five " and "forty" and then some one raised him $250. " Five 
hundred," remarked Mr. Potter, and the bidding was done. 
"Sold for $140,500 !" cried the auctioneer. Mr. Potter smiled 
and drew his check for the amount. " I can't say what I will do 
with the property," said Mr. Potter, afterwards. " You can rest 
assured, however, that the trees will not be cut down." 

On the west bank a little below General Grant's tomb is the 
pleasant village of Sunnyside ; above this, quiet Edgewater, and 
half a mile to the north of Edgewater, Pleasant Valley, formerly 
known among river pilots as"Tillie Tudlem." These little vil- 
lages, affording pleasant rambles among grassy fields and hill- 
sides, are of easy access by steamer several times a day from 
Canal or 22nd Street. 

Manhattan ville, north of Claremont Heights, opposite Edge- 
water, is now being rapidly absorbed in the great City. Passing 
the Convent of the Sacred Heart and a little Moorish building 



02 THE HUDSON. 

on the point known as the Ottendorf Pavilion, we see the 
burial yard of Trinity Church, New York, with monuments and 
headstones almost lost in foliage along its wooded hillsides. 
Here also lies buried a straightforward patriot and an honest 
Statesman, 

General John A. Dix, whoso words rang across the land 
sixty days before the attack on Port Sumter: '• If any man at- 
tempts to pull down the American flag shoot him on the spot." 
The John A. Dix Post, of Xew York, comes hither each Decora- 
tion Day and garlands with imposing ceremonies his grave and 
the graves of their comrades. 

Near Carmansville was the home of Audubon, the Ornitholo- 
gist, and the residences above the Cemetery are grouped together 
as Audubon Park. Near at hand is the New York Institute for 
the Deaf and Dumb, and pleasantly located near the Shore the 
River House once known as West-End Hotel. 

Washington Heights rise in a bold bluff above Jeffrey's 
Hook. After the withdrawal of the American army from Long 
Island, it became apparent to General Washington and Alexan- 
der Hamilton that New York would have to be abandoned. 

A letter from tin' commander-in-chief to General Greene, 
written November 8th, suggested his abandoning the Heights. 
as the Chevaux-de-frise. made by sinking old sloops and scows 
across the river, had been broken by a British frigate and two 
transports, thus opening the entire country to the north along 
the banks of the Hudson, but Greene adhered to the policy of 
maintaining the Fort which was also the expression of Congress. 
Future developments showed that Washington was right. The 
American troops, so far as clothing or equipment was concerned, 



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THE HUDSON. (55 

were in a pitiable condition, and the result of the struggle 
makes one of the darkest pages of the war. On the 12th of 
November Washington started from Stony Point for Fort Lee 
and arrived the 13th, finding to his disappointment that General 
Greene, instead of having made arrangements for evacuating, 
was, on the contrary, reinforcing Fort Washington. The entire 
defense numbered only about 2000 men, mostly militia, with 
hardly a coat, to quote an English writer, " that was not out at 
the elbows." "On the night of the 14th thirty flat-bottomed 
boats stole quietly up the Hudson, passed the American forts 
undiscovered, and made their way through Spuyten Duyvil 
Creek into Harlem River. The means were thus provided for 
crossing that river, and landing before unprotected parts of the 
American works." 

According to Irving, " On the 15th General Howe sent a sum- 
mons to surrender, with a threat of extremities should he have 
to carry the place by assault." Magaw, in his reply, intimated a 
doubt that General Howe would execute a threat " so unworthy 
of himself and the British nation; but give me leave," added 
he, "to assure his Excellency, that, actuated by the most glo- 
rious cause that mankind ever fought in, I am determined to 
defend this post to the very last extremity." 

"Apprised by the colonel of his peril, General Greene sent 
over reinforcements, with an exhortation to him to persist in his 
defense; and dispatched an express to General Washington, 
who was at Hackensack, where the troops from Peekskill were 
encamped. It was nightfall when Washington arrived at Fort 
Lee. Greene and Putnam were over at the besieged fortress. 
He threw himself into a boat, and had partly crossed the river, 



66 THE HUDSON. 

when he met those Generals returning. They informed -him of 
the garrison having been reinforced, and assured him that it 
was in high spirits, and capable of making a good defense. It 
was with difficulty, however, they could prevail on him to return 
with them to the Jersey shore, for he was excessively excited." 

"Early the next morning, Magaw made his dispositions for 
the expected attack. His forces, with the recent addition, 
amounted to nearly three thousand men. As the fort could not 
contain above a third of its defenders, most of them were sta- 
tioned about the outworks." 

About noon, a heavy cannonade thundered along the rocky 
hills, and sharp volleys of musketry, proclaimed that the action 
was commenced. 

"Washington, surrounded by several of his officers, had been 
an anxious spectator of the battle from the opposite side of the 
Hudson. Much of it was hidden from him by intervening hills 
and forest ; but the roar of cannonry from the valley of the Har- 
lem River, the sharp and incessant reports of rifles, and the 
smoke rising above the tree-tops, told him of the spirit with 
which the assault was received at various points, and gave him 
for a time hope that the defense might be successful. The action 
about the lines to the south lay open to him, and could be dis- 
tinctly seen through a telescope ; and nothing encouraged him 
more than the gallant style in which Cadwalader with inferior 
force maintained his position. When he saw him however, as- 
sailed in flank, the line broken, and his troops, overpowered by 
numbers, retreating to the fort, he gave up the game as lost. 
The worst sight of all, was to behold his men cut down and bayo- 
neted by the Hessians while begging quarter. It is said so com- 



THE HUDSON. g 7 

pletely to have overcome him, that he wept with the tenderness 
of a child/' 

" Seeing the flag go into the fort from Knyphausen's division, 
and surmising it to be a summons to surrender, he wrote a note 
to Magaw, telling him if he could hold out until evening and the 
place could not be maintained, he would endeavor to bring off 
the garrison in the night. Capt. Gooch, of Boston, a brave and 
daring man, offered to be the bearer of the note. He ran down 
to the river, jumped into a small boat, pushed over the river, 
landed under the bank, ran up to the fort and delivered the mes- 
sage, came out, ran and jumped over the broken ground, dodg- 
ing the Hessians, some of whom struck at him with their pieces 
and others attempted to thrust him with their bayonets ; escap- 
ing through them, he got to his boat and returned to Fort Lee."' 

Washington's message arrived too late. "The fort was so 
crowded by the garrison and the troops which had retreated in- 
to it, that it was difficult to move about. The enemy, too, were 
in possession of the little redoubts around, and could have poured 
in showers of shells and ricochet balls that would have made 
dreadful slaughter." It was no longer possible for Magaw to get 
his troops to man the lines ; he was compelled, therefore, to 
yield himself and his garrison prisoners of war. The only terms 
granted them were, that the men should retain their baggage 
and the officers their swords. 

Other defenses in the vicinity of Fort Washington were Fort 
Tryon, a redoubt to the north on the same heights, Fort George 
to the south overlooking Harlem River and "a water-battery at 
Jeffrey Hook." All, however, too poorly manned to hold out 
against the well equipped British force under General Howe. 



6ft THE HUDSON. 

Fort Lee. — A beautiful and commanding- site on the" west 
side opposite Fort Washington. The picturesque Landing, 
Driveway, and Hotel, mark the spot as one of the pleasantest re- 
sorts on the Jersey Shore of the Hudson. The old fort had a 
commanding position, but entirely useless to the Revolutionary 
Army after the fall of Fort Washington. It was therefore im- 
mediately abandoned to the British, as was also Fort Constitu- 
tion, another redoubt near at hand. 

It will be remembered that the American Army after long 
continued disaster in and about New York, retreated southward 
from Fort Lee and Hackensack to the Delaware, where Wash- 
ington with a strategic stroke brought dismay on his enemies 
and restored confidence to his friends and the Patriots' Cause. 

Tlie Palisades, or Great Chip Rock, as they were known 
by the old Dutch settlers, present the same bold front to the 
river that the Giant's Causeway does to the ocean. Their 
height at Fort Lee, where the bold cliffs first assert themselves, 
is three hundred feet, and they extend about seventeen or 
eighteen miles to the hills of Rockland County. A stroll along 
the summit reveals the fact that they are almost as broken and 
fantastic in form as the great rocks along the Elbe in Saxon- 
Switzerland. 

As the basaltic trap-rock is one of the oldest geological forma- 
tions, we might still appropriately style the Palisades " a chip 
of the old block." They separate the valley of the Hudson from 
the valley of the Hackensack. The Hackensack rises in Rock- 
land Lake opposite Sing Sing, within two or three hundred 
yards of the Hudson, and the rivers flow thirty miles side by 
side. Geologists say that originally they were one river, but 



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d 




THE HUDSON. ft 

they are now separated from each other by a wall more sub- 
stantial than even the 2,000 mile structure of the " Heathen 
Chinee." 

It is said that this basaltic formation was thrown up ages ago 
between a rift in the earth's surface, where it cooled in columnar 
form, and that the rocky mould which held it, being- of soft 
material, finally disintegrated and crumbled away, leaving the 
cliff with its peculiar perpendicular formation. 

A recent writer has said: "The Palisades are among the 
wonders of the world. Only three other places equal them in 
importance, but each of the four is different from the others, 
and the Palisades are unique. The Giant's Causeway on the 
north coast of Ireland, and the cliffs at Kawaddy in India, are 
thought by many to have been the result of the same upheaval 
of nature as the Palisades ; but the Hudson rocks seem to have 
preserved their entirety— to have come up in a body, as it were 
-while the Giant's Causeway owes its celebrity to the ruined 
state in which the Titanic forces of nature have left it. The 
third wonder is at Staffa, in Scotland, where the rocks have 
been thrown into such a position as to justify the name of Fin- 
gal's Cave, which they bear, and which was bestowed on them 
in the olden times before Scottish history began to be written. 
It is singular how many of the names which dignify, or designate, 
favorite spots of the Giant's Causeway have been duplicated in 
the Palisades. Among the Hudson rocks are several ' Lady's 
Chairs,' 'Lover's Leaps," Devil's Toothpicks,' 'Devil's Pulpits,' 
and, in many spots on the water's edge, especially those most 
openly exposed to the weather, we see exactly the same conform- 
ations which excite admiration and wonder in the Irish rocks." 



72 THE HUDSON. 

Under the base of these cliffs William Cullen Bryant one Sab- 
bath morning sketched "A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson." 

" Cool shades and dews are round my way, 
And silence of the early day ; 
Mid the dark rocks that watch his bed, 
Glitters the mighty Hudson spread, 
Unrippled, save by drops that fall 
From shrubs that fringe his mountain wall ; 
And o'er the clear, still water swells 
The music of the Sabbath bells. 

All, save this little nook of land, 
Circled with trees, on which I stand ; 
All, save that line of hills which lie 
Suspended in the mimic sky- 
Seems a blue void, above, below, 
Through which the white clouds come and go ; 
And from the green world's farthest steep 
I gaze into the airy deep." 

There are strange stories also connected with the Palisades 
and, as the writer continues, " many remarkable disappearances 
have occurred in the same vicinity that have never been ex- 
plained. On a conical-shaped rock near Clinton Point a young 
man and a young woman were seen standing some half a century 
ago. Several of their friends, who were back some thirty feet 
from the face of the cliff, saw them distinctly, and called out to 
them not to approach too near the edge. The young couple 
laughingly sent some answer back, and a moment later vanished 
as by magic. Their friends rushed to the edge of the cliff but 
saw no trace of them. They noticed at once that the tide was 
out, and at the base three or four boatmen were sauntering 



THE HUDSON. 73 

about as though nothing- had happened. A diligent search was 
instituted, but the young couple were not found on the rocks, 
and they could not have fallen into the river. Friends and boat- 
men joined in the search, but from that day to this they have 
never been heard from, no trace of them has been found, and 
the mystery of their disappearance is as complete now as it was 
five minutes after they vanished. A more tragical termination 
than the story of the old Pilot on a Lake George steamer, who, 
surrounded one morning by a group of tourist-questioners, 
pointed to Roger Slide Mountain, and said : "a couple went up 
there and never came back again.*' " What do you suppose, 
Captain,*' said a fair-haired, anxious listener, "ever became of 
them?" "Can't tell," said the Captain, "some folks said they 
went down on the other side." 

The old Palisade Mountain House, a few miles above Fort Lee, 
had a commanding location, but was burned in 1884 and never 
rebuilt. Pleasant villas are, however, springing up along this 
rocky balcony of the lower Hudson, and probably the entire dis- 
tance will some day abound in castles and luxuriant homes. It 
is in fact within the limit of possibility that this may in the 
future present the finest residential street in the world, with a 
natural macadamized boulevard midway between the Hudson 
and the sky. 

It sometimes grieves one to see the gray rocks torn away for 
building material, but, as fast as man destroys, nature kindly 
heals the wound ; or to keep the Palisade figure more complete, 
she recaptures the scarred and broken battlements, unfolding 
along the steep escarpment her waving standards of green. It 
sometimes seems as if one can almost see her selecting the easi- 



74 THE HUDSON. 

est point of attack, marshalling - her forces, running her parallels 
with Boadacea-like skill, and carrying- her streaming" banners, 
more real than Macduff's " Burnham-Wood " to crowning 1 ram- 
part and lofty parapet. 

The New York side from the Battery to the northern end of 
Manhattan Island is already "well peopled." Until recently the 
land about Fort Washing-ton has been held in considerable 
tracts and the very names of these surburban points sug-g-est al- 
titude and outlook — Highbridgeville, Fordham Heights, Morris 
Heights, University Heights, Kingsbridge Heights, Mount Hope, 
&c. The growth of the City all the way to Jerome and Van 
Cortlandt's Park during the last few years has been marvelous. 
It has literally stepped across the Harlem River to find room in 
the picturesque county of Westchester. 

Spuyten Duyvil Creek. — Above Washington Heights, on 
the east bank, the Spuyten Duyvil meets the Hudson. This 
stream is the northern boundary of New York Island, and a short 
distance from the Hudson bears the name of Harlem River. 
Its course is south-east and joins the East River at Randall's 
Island, just above Hell Gate. It is a curious fact that this mod- 
est stream should be bounded by such suggestive appellations as 
Hell Gate and Spuyten Duyvil. This is the first point of special 
legendary interest to one journeying up the Hudson and it takes 
its name according to the veracious Knickerbocker, from the 
following incident : It seems that the famous Antony Van 
Corlear was despatched one evening with an important message 
up the Hudson. When he arrived at this creek the wind was 
high, the elements were in an uproar, and no boatman at hand. 
" For a short time," it is said, " he vapored like an impatient 



THE HUDSON. 75 

ghost upon the brink, and then, bethinking himself of the 
urgency of his errand, took a hearty embrace of his stone bottle, 
swore most valorously that he would swim across en spijt en Diiy- 
vil (in spite of the Devil) and daringly plunged into the stream. 
Luckless Antony ! Scarce had he buffeted half way over when 
he was observed to struggle violently, as if battling with the 
spirit of the waters. Instinctively he put his trumpet to his 
mouth, and giving a vehement blast — sank forever to the bot- 
tom." The mouth of the Spuyten Duyvil still retains its old- 
time reputation as a good fishing ground. The high point of 
land near at hand was known among 'the Manhattans as Nip- 
nich-sen. 

The main branch of the Hudson River Railroad, with its sta- 
tion at Forty-second street and Fourth avenue, crosses the Har- 
lem River at Mott Haven, and, following its northern bank, 
meets the Hudson at this point, where the 30th street branch, fol- 
lowing the river, joins the main line. Passing Riverdale, with 
its beautiful residences and the Convent of Mount St. Vincent, 
one of the prominent landmarks of the Hudson, located on 
grounds bought of Edwin Forrest, the tragedian, whose Font 
Hill Castle appears in the foreground, we see 

Yonkers, on the East Bank, seventeen miles from New 
York, (population about 35,000), at the mouth of the Nepperhan 
Creek, or Saw Mill River. West of the creek is a large rock, 
called Meech-keek-assin, or as given in some of the Indian dia- 
lects, A-mac-ka-sin, the great stone to which the Indians paid 
reverence as an evidence of the permanency and immutability of 
their deity. Steamers, railway and street cars meet at Central 
Wharf, and the water front reveals business activity. Here are 



76 THE HUDSON. 

many important manufacturing industries : carpet, silk, and hat 
factories ; mowers and reapers, gutta percha, rubber and pencil 
companies. Yonkers is also quite a centre for Aquatic Clubs : 
the Yonkers Boat Club, The Corinthian and Yonkers Yacht 
Clubs and the Yonkers Canoe Club. 

It is said that Yonkers derived its name from Yonk-herr — the 
young- heir, or young- sir, of the Phillipse manor. Until after 
the middle of the seventeenth century the Phillipse family had 
their principal residence at Castle Phillipse, Sleepy Hollow, but 
having purchased ''property to the southward'* from Adrian 
Van der Donck and obtained from the English King a patent 
creating the manor of Phillipsburgh, they moved from their old 
castle to the new " Manor Hall/' which at this time was probably 
the finest mansion on the Hudson. This property was confis- 
cated by act of Legislature in 1779, as Frederick Phillipse, third 
lord of the manor, was thought to lean toward royalty, and sold 
by the "Commissioners of Forfeiture'' in 1785. It was after- 
wards purchased by John Jacob Astor, then passed to the Gov- 
ernment, was bought by the village of Yonkers in 1868, and be- 
came the City Hall in 1872. The older portion of the house was 
built in 1682, the present front in 1745. The woodwork is very 
interesting, also the ceilings, the large hall and the wide fire- 
place. In the room still pointed out as Washington's, the fire- 
place retains the old tiles, "illustrating familiar passages in 
Bible history,'' fifty on each side, looking as clear as if they 
were made but yesterday. 

Mary Phillipse, belle of the neighborhood, and known in tra- 
dition as Washington's first love, was born in this "Manor 
House "' July 3d, 1730. Washington first met her at the house 



THE HUDSON. 77 

of Beverly Robinson in New York, (Mrs. Robinson being- her 
eldest sister), after his return from the unfortunate Braddock 
Campaign. It has been said by several writers that he proposed 
and was rejected, but it is doubtful whether he ever was serious 
in his attentions. At least there is no evidence that he ever 
"told his love," and she finally married Col. Roger Morris, one 
of Washington's associates on Braddock's staff. The best part 
of residential Yonkers lies to the northward, beautifully em- 
bowered in trees as seen from the Hudson. A line of electric 
street cars runs north almost two miles along Warburton Ave- 
nue. The street known as Broadway, is a continuation of Broad- 
way, New York. Many of the River towns still keep this name, 
probably prophetic as a part of the great Broadway which will 
extend some day from the Battery to Peekskill. 

Almost opposite Yonkers a ravine or sort of step-ladder cleft, 
now known as Alpine Gorge, reaches up the precipitous sides of 
the Palisades. The landing here was formerly called Closter's, 
from which a road zigzags to the top of the cliff and thence to 
Closter Village. Here Lord Grey disembarked in October, 
1778, and crossed to Hackensack Valley, "surprising and mas- 
sacring Col. Bayler's patriots, despite their surrender and calls 
for mercy". 



78 THE HUDSON. 

YONKERS TO WEST POINT. 

Passing- Glenwood, now a suburban station of Yonkers, con- 
spicuous from the Colgate mansion near the river bank, built by 
a descendant of the English Collates who were familiar friends 
of AVilliam Pitt, and leaders of the Liberal Club in Kent, Eng- 
land, and "Greystone," the country residence of the late Samuel 
J. Tilden, Governor of New York, and Presidential Candidate 
in 1876, we come to 

Hastings, where a party of Hessians during* the Revolution- 
ary struggle were surprised and cut to pieces by troops under 
Col. Sheldon. It was here also that Lord Cornwallis embarked 
for Fort Lee after the capture of Fort Washington, and here in 
later days Garibaldi, the liberator of Italy, frequently came to 
spend the Sabbath and visit friends when he was living at Staten 
Island. Although there is apparently little to interest in the 
village, there are many beautiful residences in the immediate 
neighborhood, and the Old Post road for two miles to the north- 
ward furnishes a beautiful walk or drive-way, well shaded by 
old locust trees. The tract of country from Spuyten Duyvil to 
Hastings was called by the Indians Kekesick and reached east 
as far as the Broncks River. Passing Dr. Huyler's conspicuous 
Clock-tower we see 

Dobbs Ferry, named after an old Swedish ferryman. The 
village has not only a delightful location but it is beautiful in 
itself. A summer hotel, the " Glen Tower," overlooks the river 
below the railway station, and the entire shore is filled with 
country homes and family-seats. Dobbs Ferry in 1781 was 



THE HUDSON 79 

Washing-ton's Headquarters and the old house, still standing - , is 
famous as the spot where General Washing-ton and the. Count de 
Rochambeau planned the campaign against Yorktown ; where 
the evacuation of New York was arranged by General Clinton 
and Sir Guy Carleton the British commander, and where the 
first salute to the flag of the United States was fired by a British 
man-of-war. On flag day, June 14th, 1894, the base -stone of a 
memorial shaft was here laid with imposing ceremony by the 
New York State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 
which erected the monument. There were one thousand Grand 
Army veterans in line, and addresses by Hon. Chauncey M. 
Depew, Vice-President Stevenson, John C. Calhoun, General 
Stewart L. Woodford and D. O. Bradley. The Society and its 
guests, including members of the Cabinet, officers of the Army 
and Navy, and prominent men of various States, accompanied by 
full Marine Band of the Navy Yard, with a detachment of Naval 
Reserves, participated in the event. 

Voyagers up the river that day saw the " Miantonomoh " and 
the "Lancaster,'" under the command of Rear- Admiral Gherardi, 
anchored mid-stream to take part in the exercises. During the 
Revolution this historic house was leased by a Dutch farmer 
holding under Frederick Phillipse as landlord. After the war 
it was purchased by Peter Livingston and known since as the 
Livingston House. Arnold and Andre were to have met here 
but the meeting finally took place at Haverstraw. 

The Indian name of Dobbs Ferry was Wecquaskeck, and it is 
said by Ruttenber that the outlines of the old Indian village can 
still be traced by numerous shell-beds. It was located at the mouth 
of Wicker's Creek which was called by the Indians Wysquaqua. 



80 THE HUDSON. 

After passing " Nuits" the Cottinet residence, Italian in style, 
built of Caen stone, " Nevis," home of the late Col. James Ham- 
ilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, the George L. Schuyler 
mansion, the late Cyrus W. Field's, and many pleasant places 
about Abbotsford, we come to 

Irvington (on the east bank 24 miles from New York, popu- 
lation 2,299,) once known as Dearman's Station, but changed in 
compliment to the great writer and lover of the Hudson, who 
after a long sojourn in foreign lands, returned to live by the tran- 
quil waters of Tappan Zee. In a letter to his brother he refers 
to Sleepy Hollow as the favorite resort of his boyhood, and says : 
" The Hudson is in a manner my first and last love, and after all 
my wanderings and seeming infidelities, I return to it with a 
heartfelt preference over all the rivers of the world." As at 
Stratford-on-Avon every flower is redolent of Shakespeare, and 
at Melrose every stone speaks of Walter Scott, so here on every 
breeze floats the spirit of Washington Irving. A short walk of 
half a mile north from the station brings us to his much-loved 

" Sunnyside." Irving aptly describes it in one of his stories 
as " made up of gable-ends, and full of angles and corners as an 
old cooked hat. It is said, in fact, to have been modeled after 
the hat of Peter the Headstrong, as the Escurial of Spain was 
fashioned after the gridiron of the blessed St. Lawrence." Wol- 
fert's Roost, as it was once styled, (Roost signifying Rest,) took 
its name from Wolfert Acker, a former owner. It consisted 
originally of ten acres when purchased by Irving in 1835, but 
eight acres were afterwards added. With great humor Irving 
put above the porch entrance "George Harvey, Boum'r," 
Boumeister being an old Dutch word for architect. A storm- 




SUNNYSIDE, WITH VIGNETTE OP SLEEPY HOLLOW. 



THE HUDSON. 83 

worn weather-cock, "which once battled with the wind on the 
top of the Stadt House of New Amsterdam, in the time of Peter 
Stuyvesant, erects his crest on the gable, and a gilded horse in 
full gallop, once the weathercock of the great Van der Heyden 
palace of Albany, glitters in the sunshine, veering with every 
breeze, on the peaked turret over the portal." 

About fifty years ago a cutting of Walter Scott's favorite ivy 
at Melrose Abbey was transported across the Atlantic, and 
trained over the porch of " Sunnyside," by the hand of Mrs. 
Renwick, daughter of Rev. Andrew Jeffrey of Lochmaben, 
known in girlhood as the " Bonnie Jessie " of Annandale, or the 
" Blue-eyed Lassie " of Robert Burns : — a graceful tribute, from 
the shrine of Waverley to the nest of Knickerbocker : 

A token of friendship immortal 
With Washington Irving returns : — 

Scott's ivy entwined o'er his portal 
By the Blue-eyed Lassie of Burns. 

Scott's cordial greeting at Abbotsford, and his persistence in 
getting Murray to reconsider the publication of the "Sketch 
Book,"' which he had previously declined, were never forgotten 
by Irving. It was during a critical period of his literary career, 
and the kindness of the Great Magician, in directing early at- 
tention to his genius, is still cherished by every reader of the 
" Sketch Book " from Manhattan to San Francisco. The hearty 
grasp of the Minstrel at the gateway of Abbotsford was in real- 
ity a warm handshake to a wider brotherhood beyond the sea. 

It was here, at Sunnyside, that Daniel Webster came, when 
Secretary of State in 1842, and surprised Irving with his ap- 
pointment as Minister to Spain, remarking to a friend on the 



£4 THE HUDSON. 

journey, "Washington Irving to-day will be the most surprised 
man in America." Irving had already shown diplomatic ability 
in London in promoting the settlement of the "North Western 
Boundary," and his appointment was received with universal 
favor. Then as now Sunnyside was already a Mecca for travel- 
ers, and, among many well-known to fame, was a young man, 
afterwards Napoleon the Third. Referring to this visit, Irving 
wrote in 1853 : " Napoleon and Eugenie, Emperor and Empress ! 
The one I have had as a guest at my cottage, the other I have 
held as a pet child upon my knee in Granada. The last I saw of 
Eugenie Montijo, she was one of the reigning belles of Madrid ; 
now, she is upon the throne, launched from a returnless shore, 
upon a dangerous sea, infamous for its tremendous shipwrecks. 
Am I to live to see the catastrophe of her career, and the end of 
this suddenly conjured up empire, which seems to be of such 
stuff as dreams are made of? I confess my personal acquaint- 
ance with the individuals in this historical romance gives me 
uncommon interest in it ; but I consider it stamped with danger 
and instability, and as liable to extravagant vicissitudes as one 
of Dumas' novels." A wonderful prophecy completely fulfilled 
in the short space of seventeen years. 

The aggregate sale of Irving's works when he received his 
portfolio to Spain was already more than half a million copies, 
with an equal popularity achieved in Britain. No writer was 
ever more truly loved on both sides of the Atlantic, and his name 
is cherished to-day in England as fondly as it is in our own 
country. It has been the good fortune of the writer to spend 
many a delightful day in the very centre of Merrie England, in 
the quiet town of Stratford-on-Avon, and feel the gentle compan- 



THE HUDSON. 85 

ionship of Irving. Of all writers who have brought to Stratford 
their heart homage Irving- stands the acknowledged chief. 
The sitting-room in the "Red Horse Hotel," where he was dis- 
turbed in his midnight reverie, is still called Irving's room, and 
the walls are hung with portraits taken at different periods of 
his life. Mine host said that visitors from every land were as 
much interested in this room as in Shakespeare's birth-place. 
The remark may have been intensified to flatter an American 
visitor, but there are few names dearer to the Anglo-Saxon race 
than that on the plain headstone in the burial-yard of Sleepy 
Hollow. Sunnyside is scarcely visible to the Day Line tourist. 
A little gleam of white here and there amid the trees, close 
to the river bank, near a small boat-house, merely indicates 
its location; and the traveler by train has only a hurried glimpse, 
as it is within one hundred feet of the New York Central 
Railroad. Tappan Zee, at this point, is a little more than two 
miles wide and over the beautiful expanse Irving has thrown a 
wondrous charm. There is, in fact, " magic in the web " of all 
his works. A few modern critics, lacking appreciation alike for 
humor and genius, may regard his essays as a thing of the past, 
but as long as the Mahicanituk, the ever-flowing Hudson, pours 
its waters to the sea, as long as Rip Van Winkle sleeps in the 
blue Catskills, or the "Headless Horseman " rides at midnight 
along the old Post Road en route for Teller's Point, so long will the 
writings of Washington Irving be remembered and cherished. 
We somehow feel the reality of every legend he has given us. 
The spring bubbling up near his cottage was brought over, as he 
gravely tells us, in a churn from Holland by one of the old time 
settlers, and we are half inclined to believe it ; and no one ever 



86 THE HUDSON. 

thinks of doubting- that the ''Flying Dutchman," Mynheer Van 
Dam, has been rowing for two hundred years and never made a 
port. It is in fact still said by the old inhabitants, that often in 
the soft twilight of summer evenings, when the sea is like glass 
and the opposite hills throw their shadows across it, that the low 
vigorous pull of oars is heard but no boat is seen. 

According to Irving " Sunnyside " was once the property of 
old Baltus Van Tassel, and here lived the fair Katrina, beloved 
by all the youths of the neighborhood, but more especially by 
Ichabod Crane, the country school-master, and a reckless youth 
by the name of Van Brunt. Irving tells us that he thought out 
the story one morning on London Bridge, and went home and 
completed it in thirty-six hours. The character of Ichabod 
Crane was taken from a young man whom he met at Kinderhook 
when writing his Knickerbocker history. It will be remem- 
bered that Ichabod Crane went to a quilting-bee at the home of 
Mynheer Van Tassel, and, after the repast, was regaled with 
various ghost stories peculiar to the locality. When the ' ' party " 
was over he lingered for a time with the fair Katrina, but 
sallied out soon after with an air quite desolate and chop-fallen. 
The night grew darker and darker. He had never before felt 
so lonesome and miserable. As he passed the fatal tree where Ar- 
nold was captured, there started up before him the identical 
"Headless Horseman" to whom he had been introduced by the 
story of Brom Bones. Nay, not entirely headless ; for the head 
which ' ' should have rested upon his shoulders was carried before 
him on the pommel of the saddle. His terror rose to desperation. 
He rode for death and life. The strange horseman sped beside 
him at an equal pace. He fell into a walk. The strange horse- 



THE HUDSON. 87 

man did the same. He endeavored to sing a psalm-tune, but his 
tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. If he could but reach the 
bridge Ichabod thought he would be safe. Away then he flew 
in rapid flight. He reached the bridge, he thundered over the 
resounding planks. Then he saw the goblin rising in his stir- 
rups, and in the very act of launching his head at him. It en- 
countered his cranium with a tremendous crash. He was tum- 
bled headlong into the dirt, and the black steed and the spectral 
rider passed by like a whirlwind. The next day tracks of horses 
deeply dented in the road were traced to the bridge, beyond 
which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water 
ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate Icha- 
bod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin." All honor to him 
who fills this working-day world with romance and beauty ! 

Piermont (population 1,219), lies directly opposite Irvington, 
just above the Palisades, which here recede from the shore and 
lose their wall-like character. The long pier which gives the 
name to the village, projecting almost one mile into the bay, 
is a terminus of the Erie Railway, connecting with the main line 
about eighteen miles distant. The old Rockland Cemetery 
situated near Sparkhill, overlooking the Hudson, has been 
recently purchased by New York capitalists, looking to the com- 
ing burial necessities of greater New York. Two hundred acres 
have already been secured and other grounds will be added. It 
is said that this will be the largest cemetery in the world. Four 
broad plateaus rise by gentle slope to an altitude of several hun- 
dred feet, from which eminence can be seen five States : — New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut. In the receiving vault lies the body of General John C. 



88 THE HUDSON. 

Fremont, and it is expected that a handsome monument will be 
erected to his memory. The old village of Tappan is about two 
miles from Piermont, where Major Andre was executed October 
2d, 1780. The removal of his body from Tappan to Westminster 
was by a special British ship, and a singular incident was con- 
nected with it. The roots of a cypress tree were found entwined 
about his skull and a scion from the tree was carried to England 
and planted in the garden adjoining Windsor Palace. It is a 
still more curious fact that the tree beneath which Andre was 
captured was struck by lightning on the day of Benedict Ar- 
nold's death in London. Further reference will be made to 
Andre in our description of Tarrytown, and of Haverstraw, 
where Arnold and Andre met at the house of Joshua Hett Smith. 
Tarrytown (26 miles from New York, population 3,562, North 
Tarrytown 3,179). Between Irvington and Tarrytown there are 
many imposing mansions. Most conspicuous of all is the old 
Paulding House, built by a descendant of John Paulding. Jay 
Gould died possessed of the property and it is now owned by his 
heirs. John D. Archibald's house is also notably fine. The 
Tappan Zee at Tarrytown is nearly three miles wide. It was here 
on the old Post Road, now called Broadway, a little north of the 
village, that Andre was captured and Arnold's treachery exposed. 
A monument erected on the spot by the people of Westchester 
County, October 7, 1853, bears the following inscription : 

ON THIS SPOT, THE 23D DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1780, THE SPY, 

MAJOR JOHN ANDRE, 

Adjutant-General of the British Army, was captured by 

John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac Van Wart. 

all natives of this county. 

History has told the rest. 



THE HUDSON. 89 

The following quaint ballad-verses on the young hero give a 
realistic touch to one of the most providential occurrences in our 
history: 

He with a scouting party 

Went down to Tarrytown, 
Where he met a British officer, 

A man of high renown, 
Who says unto these gentlemen, 
" You're of the British cheer, 
I trust that you can tell me 
If there's any danger near ? " 

Then up stept this young hero, 
John Paulding was his name, 
" Sir, tell us where you're going 
And also whence you came ?" 
" I bear the British flag, sir ; 
I've a pass to go this way, 
I'm on an expedition, 
And have no time to stay." 

Young Paulding, however, thought that he had plenty of time 
to linger until he examined his boots, wherein he found the 
papers, and, when offered ten guineas by Andre, if he would al- 
low him to pursue his journey, replied : " If it were ten thousand 
guineas you could not stir one step." 

The Centennial Anniversary of the event was commemorated 
in 1880 by placing, through the generosity of John Anderson, 
on the original obelisk of 1853, a large statue representing John 
Paulding as a minute-man. 

Tarrytown was the very heart of the Debatable Ground of 
the Revolution and many striking incidents mark its early his- 
tory. In 1777 Vaughan's troops landed here on their way to 



90 THE HUDSON. 

attack Fort Montgomery, and here a party of Americans, "under 
Major Hunt, surprised a number of British refugees while play- 
ing cards at the Van Tassel tavern. The major completely 
" turned the cards " upon them by rushing in with brandished 
stick, which he brought down with emphasis upon the table, re- 
marking with genuine American brevity, "Gentlemen, clubs 
are trumps." Here, too, according to Irving, arose the two 
great orders of chivalry, the " Cow Boys " and " Skinners." The 
former fought, or rather marauded under the American, the 
latter under the British banner ; the former were known as 
"Highlanders," the latter as the "Lower Party." In the zeal 
of service both were apt to make blunders, and confound the 
property of friend and foe. "Neither of them, in the heat and 
hurry of a foray, had time to ascertain the politics of a horse or 
cow which they were driving off into captivity, nor when they 
wrung the neck of a rooster did they trouble their heads whether 
he crowed for Congress or King George." 

It was also a genial, reposeful country for the faithful his- 
torian, Diedrich Knickerbocker ; and here he picked up many 
of those legends which were given by him to the world. One of 
these was the legend connected with the old Dutch Church of 
Sleepy Hollow. "A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over 
the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say the 
place was bewitched by a high German doctor during the early 
days of the settlement ; others that an old Indian chief, the 
wizard of his tribe, held his pow-wows there before Hendrich 
Hudson's discovery of the river. The dominant spirit, however, 
that haunts this enchanted region, is the apparition of a figure 
on horse-back, without a head, said to be the ghost of a Hessian 



THE HUDSON. 



91 



trooper, and was known at all the country firesides as the 
' Headless horseman ' of Sleepy Hollow." 

Sleepy Hollow.— The Old Dutch Church, the oldest on the 
Hudson, is about one-half mile north from Tarrytown. 

It was built by "Frederick Filipse and his wife Katrina Van 
Cortland in 1690." The material is partly of stone and partly of 
brick brought from Holland. It stands as an appropriate senti- 




SLEEPY HOLLOW CHURCH. 



nel near the entrance to the burial-yard where Irving' sleeps. 
After entering- the gate our way leads past the graves of the 
Ackers, the Van Tassels, and the Van Warts, with inscriptions 
and plump Dutch cherubs on every side that often de- 
lighted the heart of Diedrich Knickerbocker. How many wor- 
shippers since that November day in 1859, have come hither 



92 THE HUDSON. 

with reverent footsteps to read on the plain slab this simple in- 
scription : "Washing-ton Irving, born April 3, 1783. Died No- 
vember 28, 1859." And what a beautiful tribute from Longfellow 
" In the churchyard at Tarry town ! " 

" Here lies the gentle humorist, who died 
In the bright Indian Summer of his fame. 
A simple stone, with but a date and name, 

Marks his secluded resting place beside 

The river that he loved and glorified. 
Here in the Autumn of his days he came, 
But the dry leaves of life were all aflame 

With tints that brightened and were multiplied. 

How sweet a life was his, how sweet a death : 

Living to wing with mirth the weary hours, 
Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer ; 

Dying to leave a memory like the breath 

Of Summers full of sunshine and of showers, 
A grief and gladness in the atmosphere." 

Sleepy Hollow Church, like Sunnyside, is hidden away from the 
steamer tourist by summer foliage. Just before reaching Kings- 
land Point light-house, a view, looking northeast up the little 
bay to the right, will sometimes give the outline of the building. 
Beyond this a tall granite shaft, erected by the Delavan family, 
is generally quite distinctly seen, and this is near the grave of 
Irving. The light-house, built in 1883, marks the southern point 
of the Kingsland estate, and just below this the Pocantico or 
Sleepy Hollow Creek joins the Hudson : 

Pocantico's hushed waters glide 
Through Sleepy Hollow's haunted ground, 

And whisper to the listening tide 
The name carved o'er one lowly mound. 



THE HUDSON. 93 

To one loving our early history and legends there is no spot 
more central or delightful than Tarrytown. Irving humorously 
says that Tarrytown took its name from husbands tarrying too 
late at the village tavern, but its real derivation is Tarwen- 
Dorp, or Wheat-town. The name of the old Indian village at 
this point was Alipconck (the place of elms). It has often oc- 
curred to the writer that, more than any other river, the Hudson 
has a distinct personality, and also that the four main divisions 
of human life are particularly marked in the Adirondacks, the 
Catskills, the Highlands and Tappan Bay : 

The Adirondacks, childhood's glee ; 

The Catskills, youth with dreams o'ercast ; 
The Highlands, manhood bold and free ; 

The Tappan Zee, age come at last. 

This was the spot that Irving loved ; we linger by his grave 
at Sleepy Hollow with devotion ; we sit upon his porch at Sunny- 
side with reverence : 

Thrice blest and happy Tappan Zee, 

Whose banks along thy waters wide 
Have legend, truth, and poetry 

Sweetly expressed in Sunnyside ! 

Nyack, on the west side, (27 miles from New York, terminus 
of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey, connected with Tarry- 
town by ferry : population 4,111, South Nyack 1,496,) lies in a 
semi-circle of hills which sweep back from Piermont, meeting 
the river again at the northern end of Tappan Zee. Tappan 
is derived from an Indian tribe of that name, which, being 
translated, is said to signify cold water. The bay is ten miles in 
length, with an average breadth of about two miles and a half. 



94 THE HUDSON. 

Nyack grows steadily in favor as a place for Summer resi- 
dents. The hotels, boarding-houses and suburban homes would 
increase the census as given to nearly ten thousand people. The 
West Shore Railroad is two and a half miles from the Hudson, 
with station at West Nyack. The Northern Railroad of New 
Jersey, leased by the New York, Lake Erie and Western, (Cham- 
bers Street and 23d Street, New York) passes west of the 
Berg-en Hills and the Palisades. The Ramapo Mountains, north 
of Nyack, were formerly known by ancient mariners as the 
Hook, or Point-no-Point. They come down to the river in little 
headlands, the points of which disappear as the steamer nears 
them. The peak to the south is 730 feet high. They were 
sometimes called by Dutch captains Verditege Hook. Perhaps 
it took so long to pass these illusive headlands, reaching as they 
do eight miles along the western bank, that it naturally seemed 
a very tedious point to the old skippers. Midway in this Ramapo 
Range, "set in a dimple of the hills," is — 

Rockland Lake, source of the Hackensack River, one hun- 
dred and fifty feet above the sea. The " slide way," by which 
the ice is sent down to the boats to be loaded, can be seen from 
the steamer, and the blocks in motion, as seen by the traveler, 
resemble little white pigs running down an inclined plane. As 
we look at the great ice-houses to-day, which, like uncouth 
barns, stand here and there along the Hudson, it does not seem 
possible that only a few years ago ice was decidedly unpopular, 
and wheeled about New York in a hand-cart. Think of one 
hand-cart supplying New York with ice ! It was considered un- 
healthy, and called forth many learned discussions. 

Returning to the east bank, we see above Tarrytown many 



THE HUDSON. 95 

delightful residences, notably among- these " Rockwood," the 
home of William Rockefeller, President of the Standard Oil 
Company. The estate of General James Watson Webb is also 
near at hand, one of whose sons, Vice-President of the New York 
Central Railroad, has recently carried a new and pleasant railway 
into the very heart of the Adirondacks. Passing Scarborough 
Landing, with the Hook Mountain and Ball Mountains on the 
left, we see 

Sing Sing, on the east bank (32 miles from New York ; popu- 
lation 9,352). The low white buildings, near the river bank, are 
the State's Prison. They are constructed of marble, but are not 
considered palatial by the 1,700 prisoners that occupy the cells. 
It was quarried near by, and the prisons were built by convicts 
imported from Auburn in 1826. Saddlery, furniture, shoes, etc., 
are manufactured within its walls. There was an Indian chief- 
tancy here known as the Sint-sinks. In a deed to Philip Phil- 
lipse in 1685 a stream is referred to as " Kitchewan called by 
the Indians Sink-Sink." The Indian Village was known as 
Ossinsing, from " ossin " a stone and "sing" a place, probably 
so called from the rocky and stony character of the river banks. 
The heights above Tappan Zee at this point are crowned by fine 
residences, and the village is one of the pleasantest on the river. 
The drives among the hills are delightful and present a wide 
and charming outlook. Here also are several nourishing mili- 
tary boarding schools and a seminary for girls. The old silver 
and copper mines once worked here never yielded satisfactory 
returns for invested capital. Few towns are better equipped as 
to water and fire department service, and the people are well ac- 
commodated in having - thirty trains and one steamboat daily to 



96 THE HUDSON. 

and from New York. Various industries give active life and 
prosperity to the town. Just above Sing Sing 

Croton River, known by the Indians as Kitchawonk, joins 
the Hudson in a bay crossed by the New York Central Eailroad 
Croton draw-bridge. East of this point is a water shed having 
an area of 350 square miles, which supplies New York with 
water. The Croton Reservoir is easily reached by a pleasant 
carriage drive from Sing Sing, and it is a singular fact that the 
pitcher and ice-cooler of New York, or in other words, Croton 
Dam and Rockland Lake, should be almost opposite. About 
fifty years ago the Croton first made its appearance in New 
Yock, brought in by an aqueduct of solid masonry which follows 
the course of the Hudson near the old Post Road, or at an aver- 
age distance of about a mile from the east bank. Here and there 
its course can be traced by " white stone ventilating towers" 
from Sing Sing to High Bridge, which conveys the acqueduct 
across the Harlem River. Its capacity is 100,000,000 gallons per 
day, which however began to be inadequate for the City and a 
new aqueduct was therefore begun in 1884 and completed in 
1890, capable of carrying three times that amount, at a cost of 
$25,000,000. The water-shed is well supplied with streams and 

* 

lakes. Lake Mahopac, one of its fountains, is one of the most 
beautiful sheets of water near the metropolis, and easily accessi- 
ble by a pleasant drive from Peekskill, or by the Harlem Bail- 
road from New York. The old Indian name was Ma-cook-pake, 
signifying a large inland lake, or perhaps an island near the 
shore. The same derivation, we imagine, is also seen in Copake 
Lake, Columbia County. On an island of Mahopac the last great 
4 ' convention" of the southern tribes of the Hudson was held. 



THE HUDSON. 97 

The lake is about 800 feet above tide, and it is pleasant to know- 
that the bright waters of Mahopac and the clear streams of Put- 
nam and Westchester are conveyed to New York even as the 
poetic waters of Lock Katrine to the City of Glasgow. 

Just above Croton Bay and the New York Central Railroad 
Draw-bridge will be seen the old Van Cortlandt Manor, where 
Frederick Phillipse and Katrina Van Cortlandt were married, 
as seen by the inscription on the old Dutch Church of Sleepy 
Hollow. 

Teller's Point (sometimes known as Croton or Underbill's 
Point), separates Tappan Zee from Haverstraw Bay. It was 
called by the Indians " Senasqua." Tradition says that ancient 
warriors still haunt the surrounding glens and woods, and the 
sachems of Teller's Point are household words in the neighbor- 
hood. It is also said that there was once a great Indian battle 
here, and perhaps the ghosts of the old warriors are attracted 
by the Underhill grapery and the 10,000 gallons of wine bottled 
every season. 

The river now opens into a beautiful bay, four miles in 
width,— a bed large enough to tuck up fifteen River Rhines side 
by side. This reach sometimes seems in the bright sunlight 
like a molten bay of silver, and the tourist finds relief in adjust- 
ing his smoked glasses to temper the dazzling light. 

Haverstraw. — (37 miles from New York, population about 
5,000). Haverstraw Bay is sometimes said to be five miles wide. 
Its widest point however, from Croton Landing to Haverstraw 
is, according to recent United States Geological Survey, exactly 
four miles. The principal industry of Haverstraw is brick-mak- 
ing, and its brick-yards reaching north to Grassy Point, are 



98 THE HUDSON. 

generally prosperous if not picturesque. The place was called 

Haverstraw by the Dutch, perhaps as a place of rye straw, to 

distinguish it from Tarrytown, a place of wheat. The Indian 

name has been lost ; but, if its original derivation is uncertain, 

it at least calls up the rhyme of old-time river captains, which 

Captain Anderson of the Mary Powell told the writer he used 

to hear frequently when a boy : 

" West Point and Middletown, 
Konnosook and Doodletown, 
Kakiak and Mamapaw, 
Stony Point and Haverstraw." 

Quaint as these names now sound, they all are found on old 
maps of the Hudson. 

High Torn is the name of the northern point of the Ramapo 
on the west bank, south of Haverstraw. According to the Coast 
Survey, it is 820 feet above tide-water, and the view from the 
summit is grand and extensive. The origin of the name is not 
clear, but it has lately occurred to the writer, from a recent 
reading of Scott's " Peveril of the Peak," that it might have 
been named from the Torn, a mountain in Derbyshire, either 
from its appearance, or by some patriotic settler from the cen- 
tral water-shed of England. Others say it is the Devonshire 
word Tor changed to Torn, evidently derived from the same 
source. 

West Shore Railroad.— The tourist will see at this point, 
on the left bank of the river, the tunnel whereby the " West 
Shore " finds egress from the mountains. The traveler over this 
railway, on emerging from the quiet valley west of the Pali- 
sades, comes upon a sudden vision of beauty unrivaled in any 



THE HUDSON. 99 

land. The broad river seems like a great inland lake ; and the 
height of the tunnel above the silver bay gives to the panoramic 
landscape a wondrous charm. About a mile from the river, 
southwest of Grassy Point, on the farther side of the winding 
Minnissickuongo Creek, which finally after long meandering 
makes up its mind to glide into Stony Point Bay, will be seen 
Treason Hill marked by the Joshua Hett Smith stone house 
where Arnold and Andre met. The story of this meeting will 
be referred to at greater length in connection with its most 
dramatic incident at the old Beverly House in the Highlands. 
The Hudson here is about two miles in width and narrows rap- 
idly to 

Stony Point, where it is scarcely more than half a mile wide. 
This was, therefore, an important pass during the Revolution. 
The crossing near at hand was known as King's Ferry, at and 
before the days of '76, and was quite an avenue of travel between 
the Southern, Middle and Eastern States. The fort crowning a 
commanding headland, was captured from the Americans by 
the British, June 1, 1779, but it was surprised and recaptured by 
Anthony Wayne, July 15 of the same year. A centennial was 
observed at the place July 15, 1879, when the battle was "re- 
fought " and the West Point Cadets showed how they would 
have done it if they had been on hand a century ago. Thacke- 
ray, in his "Virginians," gives perhaps the most graphic ac- 
count of this midnight battle. The present light-house occupies 
the site of the old fort, and was built in part of stone taken from 
its walls. Upon its capture by the British, Washington, whose 
headquarters were at New Windsor, meditated a bold stroke 
and summoned Anthony Wayne, more generally known as 



100 THE HUDSON. 

"Mad Anthony," from his reckless daring, to undertake its re- 
capture with a force of one thousand picked men. The lines were 
formed in two columns about 8 p. m. at " Springsteel's farm." 
Each soldier and officer put a piece of white paper in his hat to 
distinguish him from the foe. No guns were to be loaded under 
penalty of death. General Wayne forded the marsh, at the head 
of the column covered at the time with two feet of water. The 
other column led by Butler and Murfree crossed an apology for 
a bridge. During the advance both columns were discovered 
by the British sentinels and the rocky defense literally blazed 
with musketry. In stern silence, however, without faltering 
or firing a single shot, the American columns moved forward, 
entered the abatis, until the advance guard under Anthony 
Wayne were within the enemy's works. A bullet at this mo- 
ment struck Wayne in the forehead grazing his skull. Quickly 
recovering from the shock he rose to his knees, shouted "For- 
ward my brave fellows : " then turning to two of his followers, 
he asked them to help him into the fort that he might die, if it 
were to be so, " in possession of the spot." Both columns were 
now at hand and inspired by the brave General, came pouring 
in, crying " The Fort's our own." The British troops completely 
overwhelmed, were fain to surrender and called for mercy. 
Wayne's characteristic message to Washington antedates mod- 
ern telegraphic brevity :— " Stony Point, 2 o'clock a. m. The 
American flag waves here: Mad Anthony." There were twenty 
killed and sixty wounded on each side. Some five hundred 
of the enemy were captured and about sixty escaped. 4 Money 
rewards and medals were given to Wayne and the leaders in the 
assault. The ordnance and stores captured were appraised at 



THE HUDSON. 101 

over $180,000 and paid by Congress in cash, which was dis- 
tributed among the troops engaged, and there was universal 
rejoicing " throughout the land. Verplanck's Point, on the east 
bank (now full of brick-making establishments with kilns and 
drying houses), was the site of Fort Lafayette. It was here that 
Baron Steuben drilled the soldiers of the American army. Back 
from Green Cove above Verplanck's Point is "Knickerbocker 
Lake." This is the nearest spot to New York where ice is cut 
on the Hudson, provided Rockland Lake is not taken into consid- 
eration. 

Tompkin's Cove.— North of Stony Point we see great quar- 
ries of limestone, the principal industry of the village of Tomp- 
kin's Cove. Gravel is also shipped from this place for Central 
Park roads and driveways in New York City. The tourist, look- 
ing north from the forward deck of the steamer, sees no opening 
in the mountains, and it is amusing to hear the various conjec- 
tures of the passengers ; as usual, the " unexpected" happens, 
and we sweep at once into the grand scenery of the Highlands. 
The straight forward course, which seems the more natural, 
would land the steamer against the Hudson River Railroad, cross- 
ing the Peekskill River. It is said that an old skipper, Jans 
Peek, ran up this stream, years before the railroad was built, 
and did not know that he had left the Hudson, or rather that the 
Hudson was "on the left" until he ran aground in the shoal 
water of the bay. The next morning he discovered that it was 
a goodly land, and the place bears his name unto this day. 

Peekskill, (forty miles from New York, population 9676), is a 
pleasant village on the quiet bay which deeply indents the east- 
ern bank. The property in this vicinity was known as Rycks 



102 THE HUDSON. 

Patent in 1665. In Revolutionary times Fort Independence stood 
on the point above, where its ruins are still seen. The Francis- 
can Convent Academy of "Our Lady of Angels," guards the 
point below. In 1797 Peekskill was the headquarters of old 
Israel Putnam, who rivaled " Mad Anthony " in brevity as well 
as courage. It will be remembered that Palmer was here cap- 
tured as a spy. A British officer wrote a letter asking his re- 
prieve, to which Putnam replied, " Nathan Palmer was taken as 
a spy, tried as a spy and will be hanged as a spy. P. S. — He 
is hanged." This was the birthplace of Paulding, one of Andre's 
captors, and he died here in 1818. He is buried in the old rural 
cemetery about two miles and a half from the village, and a 
monument has been erected to his memory. Near at hand is the 
"Wayside Inn," where Andre once " tarried," and the marks of 
his military boots, still shown, are probably about as genuine 
as the stain of Rizzio's blood in Old Holyrood, Edinburgh. Gal- 
low's Hill and its immediate neighborhood are full cf historic 
associations. 

Near Peekskill is the old Van Cortlandt house, the residence 
of Washington for a short time during the Revolution. East of 
the village was the summer home of the great pulpit orator, 
Henry Ward Beecher, and Peekskill is also known far and wide 
as the birthplace and many-storied shrine of that sunny-prismed 
genius, orator and wit, Chauncey M. Depew, President of the 
New York Central Railroad. Suburban trains give hourly commu- 
nication with New York, and the well known Steamer " Chryste- 
nah " makes daily pilgrimages to the metropolis. Peekskill was 
known by the Indians as Sackhoes, in the territory of the Kitch- 
awongs which extended from Croton River to Anthony's Nose. 



o 
> 

r 
o 
> 




THE HUDSON. 105 

Turning Caldwell's Landing 1 or Jones' Point, formerly known 
as Kidd's Point, almost at right angles, the steamer enters the 
southern gate of the Highlands. At the water edge will be 
seen some upright planks or caissons marking the spot where 
Kidd's ship was supposed to have been scuttled. As his history 
seems to be intimately associated with the Hudson, we will give 
it in brief : 

Tile Story of Captain Kidd. — " My name was Captain Kidd 
as I sailed," are famous lines of an old ballad which was once 
familiar to our grandfathers. The hapless hero of the same 
was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, and it is 
thought, near Greenock, Scotland. He resided at one time in 
New York, near the corner of William and Cedar Streets, and 
was there married. In April, 1696, he sailed from England in 
command of the " Adventure Galley," with full armament and 
eighty men. He captured a French ship, and, on arrival at 
New York, put up articles for volunteers ; remained in New 
York three or four months, increasing his crew to one hundred 
and fifty-five men, and sailed thence to Madras, thence to Bona- 
vista and St. Jago, Madagascar, then to Calicut, then to Mada- 
gascar again, then sailed and took the ''Quedah Merchant." 
Kidd kept forty shares of the spoils, and divided the rest with 
his crew. He then burned the "Adventure Galley," went on 
board the " Quedah Merchant," and steered for the West Indies. 
Here he left the " Merchant," with part of his crew, under one 
Bolton, as commander. Then manned a sloop, and taking part 
of his spoils, went to Boston via Long Island Sound, and is said 
to have set goods on shore at different places. In the mean 
time, in August, 1698, the East Indian Company informed the 



106 THE HUDSON. 

Lords Justice that Kidd had committed several acts of piracy, 
particularly in seizing a Moor's ship called the " Quedah Mer- 
chant." When Kidd landed at Boston he was therefore arrested 
by the Earl of Beilamont, and sent to England for trial, 1699, 
where he was found guilty and executed. Now it is supposed 
that the crew of the "Quedah Merchant," which Kidd left at 
Hispaniola, sailed for their homes, as the crew was mostly 
gathered from the Highlands and above. It is said that they 
passed New York in the night, en route to the manor of Living- 
ston ; but encountering a gale in the Highlands, and thinking 
they were pursued, ran her near the shore, now known as Kidd's 
Point, and here scuttled her, the crew fleeing to the woods with 
such treasure as they could carry. Whether this circumstance 
was true or not, it was at least a current story in the neighbor- 
hood, and an enterprising individual, about fifty years ago, 
caused an old cannon to be " discovered " in the river, and perpe- 
trated the first "Cardiff Giant Hoax." A New York Stock 
Company was organized to prosecute the work. It was said that 
the ship could be seen in clear days, with her masts still stand- 
ing, many fathoms below the surface. One thing is certain — 
the Company did not see it or the treasurer either, in whose 
hands were deposited about $30,000. 
On the west shore rise the rock-beaten crags of — 
The Dunderberg-, the dread of the Dutch mariners. This 
hill, according to Irving, was peopled with a multitude of imps, 
too great for man to number, who wore sugar-loaf hats and short 
doublets, and had a picturesque way of "tumbling head over 
heels in the rack and mist." They were especially malignant 
toward all captains who failed to do them reverence, and 



THE HUDSON. 107 

brought down frightful squalls on such craft as failed to drop 
the peaks of their mainsails to the goblin who presided over this 
shadowy republic. It was the dread of the early navigators — in 
fact, the Olympus of Dutch mythology. Verditege Hook, the 
Dunderberg, and the Overslaugh, were names of terror to even 
the bravest skipper. The old burghers of New York never 
thought of making their week's voyage to Albany without ar- 
ranging their wills, and it created as much commotion in New 
Amsterdam as a modern expedition to the north pole. Dunder- 
berg, in most of the Hudson Guides and Maps, is put down as 
1,098 feet, but its actual altitude by the latest United States 
Geological Survey is 865 feet. 

The State National Guard Encampment crowns a bluff, for- 
merly known as Roa Hook, on the east bank, north of Peekskill 
Bay, a happy location in the midst of history and beauty. Every 
regiment in the State rallies here in turn during the summer 
months for instruction in the military art, living in tents and 
enjoying life in true army style. Visitors are cordially greeted 
at proper hours, and the camp is easily reached by ferry from 
Peekskill. A ferry also runs from Peekskill to Dunderberg, af- 
fording a hillside outing and a delightful view. It is expected 
that a spiral railroad, fourteen miles in length, undertaken by a 
recently organized corporation, but abandoned for the present, 
will make the spot a great Hudson River resort. The plan also 
embraces a palatial hotel on the summit and pleasure grounds 
upon the Point at its base. Passing Manito Mountain on our 
right the steamer approaches 

Anthony's Nose, a prominent feature of the Hudson. 
Strangely enough the altitude of the mountains at the southern 



108 



THE HUDSON. 



portal of the Highlands has boon greatly overrated. Tho for- 
merly accepted height of Anthony's Nose has boon reduced by 
the Geological Survey from 1,228 feet to \\)0. It has, however, 
an illustrious christening, and according to various historians 




ANTHONY'S NOSE. (FROM THE SOUTH). 

several godfathers. One says it was named after St. Anthony 
the Great, the first institutor of monastic life, horn A. D. 2.">l. 
at Coma, in Heraclea, a town in Upper Egypt. Irving's humor- 
ous account is. however, quite as probable that it was derived 
from the nose of Anthony Van Corlear, the illustrious trumpeter 



THE HUDSON. 109 

of Peter Stuyvesant. "Now thus it happened that bright and 
early in the morning the good Anthony, having washed his 
burly visage, was leaning over the quarter-railing of the galley, 
contemplating it in the glassy waves below. Just at this moment 
the illustrious sun, breaking in all his splendor from behind a 
high bluff of the Highlands, did dart one of his most potent 
beams full upon the refulgent nose of the sounder of brass, the 
reflection of which shot straightway down hissing hot into the 
water, and killed a mighty sturgeon that was sporting beside 
the vessel. When this astonishing miracle was made known to 
the Governor, and he tasted of the unknown fish, he marveled 
exceedingly ; and, as a monument thereof, he gave the name of 
Anthony's Nose to a stout promontory in the neighborhood, and 
it has continued to be called Anthony's Nose ever since." It 
was called by the Indians " Kittatenny," a Delaware term, signi- 
fying " endless hills." The stream flowing into the river south 
of Anthony's Nose is known as the Brocken Kill, broken into 
beautiful cascades from mountain source to mouth. 

Iona Island, with its grapery and pleasant picnic grounds, 
is near the west bank, opposite Anthony's Nose ; and a short dis- 
tance from the island, on the main land, was the village or 
cross-roads of Doodletown. This reach of the river was form- 
erly known as The Horse Race, from the rapid flow of the tide 
when at its height. The hills on the west bank now recede 
from the river, forming a picturesque amphitheatre, bounded on 
the west by Bear Mountain. An old road directly in the rear of 
Iona Island, better known to Anthony Wayne than to the 
modern tourist, passes through Doodletown, over Dunderberg, 
just west of Tompkin's Cove, to Haverstraw. Here amid these 



110 THE HUDSON. 

pleasant foothills Morse laid the scene of a historical romance, 
which he however happily abandoned for a wider invention. 
The world can get along without the novel, but it would be a 
trifle slow without the telegraph. On the west bank, directly 
opposite the railroad tunnel which puts a merry "ring" into 
the tip of Anthony's Nose, is what is now known as Highland 
Lake, called by the Indians Sinnipink, and by the immediate 
descendants of our Revolutionary fathers "Hessian Lake "or 
" Bloody Pond," from the fact that an American company had a 
severe struggle here with the British, and after the capture of 
Fort Montgomery their bodies were thrown into the lake. 

The capture of Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery was two 
years before Mad Anthony's successful assault on Stony Point. 
Early in the history of the Revolution, the British Government 
thought that it would be possible to cut off the eastern from the 
middle and southern colonies by capturing and garrisoning com- 
manding points along the Hudson and Lake Champlain. It was 
therefore decided in London, in the spring of 1777, to have Sir 
Henry Clinton approach from the south and Burgoyne from the 
north. Re-enforcements, however, arrived late from England and 
it was September before Clinton transported his troops, about 
4,000 in number, in warships and flat-boats up the river. Gov- 
ernor George Clinton was in charge of Fort Montgomery, and his 
brother James of Fort Clinton, while General Putnam, with 
about 2,000 men, had his headquarters at Peekskill. In addition 
to these forts, a chain was stretched across the Hudson from 
Anthony's Nose to a point near the present railroad bridge, to 
obstruct the British fleet. General Putnam, however, became 
convinced that Sir Henry Clinton proposed to attack Fort In- 



THE HUDSON. Ill 

dependence. Most of the troops were accordingly withdrawn 
from Forts Montgomery and Clinton, when Sir Henry Clinton, 
taking- advantage of a morning fog, crossed with 2,000 men at 
King's Ferry. Guided by a sympathizer of the British cause, 
who knew the district, he crossed the Dunderberg Mountain by 
the road just indicated. One division of 900 moving on Fort 
Montgomery, and another of 1,100 on Fort Clinton. Governor 
Clinton in the meantime ordered 400 soldiers to Fort Mont- 
gomery, and his reconoitering party, met by the Hessians, fell 
back upon the fort, fighting as it retreated. Governor Clinton 
sent to General Putnam for re-enforcements, but it is said that 
the messenger deserted, so that Putnam literally sat Avaiting 
in camp, unconscious of the enemy's movements. A simultaneous 
attack was made at 5 o'clock in the afternoon on both forts. 
Lossing says : " The garrisons were composed mostly of un- 
trained militia. They behaved nobly, and kept up the defense 
vigorously, against a greatly superior force of disciplined and 
veteran soldiers, until twilight, when they were overpowered, 
and sought safety in a scattered retreat to the neighboring 
mountains. Many escaped, but a considerable number were 
slain or made prisoners. The Governor fled across the river in 
a boat, and at midnight was with General Putnam at Continental 
Village, concerting measures for stopping the invasion. James, 
forcing his way to the rear, across the highway bridge, received 
a bayonet wound in the thigh, but safely reached his home at 
New Windsor. A sloop of ten guns, the frigate Montgomery — 
twenty-four guns — and two row-galleys, stationed near the boom 
and chain for their protection, slipped their cables and attempted 
to escape, but there was no wind to fill their sails, and they 



112 THE HUDSON. 

were burned by the Americans to prevent their falling into the 
hands of the enemy. The frigate Congress, twenty-eight guns, 
which had already gone up the river, shared the same fate on 
the flats near -Fort Constitution, which was abandoned. By the 
light of the burning vessels the fugitive garrisons made their 
way over the rugged mountains, and a large portion of them 
joined General Clinton at New Windsor the next day. They had 
left many of their brave companions behind, who, to the number 
of 250, had been slain or taken prisoners. The British, too, had 
parted with many men and brave officers. Among the latter 
was Lieut. Col. Campbell. Early in the morning of the 7th of 
October, the river obstructions between Fort Montgomery and 
Anthony's Nose, which cost the Americans $250,000, were de- 
stroyed, and a light flying squadron, commanded by Sir James 
Wallace, and bearing a large number of land troops under 
General Vaughan, sailed up the river on a marauding expe- 
dition, with instructions from Sir Henry to scatter desolation in 
their paths. It was hoped that such an expedition would draw 
troops from the Northern army for the protection of the country 
below, and thereby assist Burgoyne." 

Sir Henry Clinton, who had been advised by General Burgoyne 
that he must be relieved by October 12th, sent a messenger an- 
nouncing his victory. Another of the many special providences 
of the American Revolution now occurs. The messenger blun- 
dered into the American camp, where some soldiers sat in Brit- 
ish uniform, and found out too late that he was among enemies 
instead of friends. As Irving relates the incident in his Life of 
Washington :— " On the 9th (October) two persons coming from 
Fort Montgomery were arrested by the guard, and brought for 



THE HUDSON. 113 

examination. One was much agitated, and was observed to put 
something 1 hastily into his mouth and swallow it. An emetic 
was administered, and brought up a silver bullet. Before he 
could be prevented he swallowed it again. On his refusing a 
second emetic, the Governor threatened to have him hanged and 
his body opened. This threat was effectual and the bullet was 
again ' brought to light ' in the preceding manner. It was oval in 
form, and hollow, with a screw in the centre, and contained a 
note from Sir Henry Clinton to Burgoyne, written on a slip of 
thin paper, and dated October 8th, from Fort Montgomery: 
"Xous y void (here we are), and nothing between us and Gates. 
I sincerely hope this little success of ours will facilitate your 
operations.' " Burgoyne never received it, and on October 13th, 
after the battles of Bennington and Saratoga, surrendered to 
General Gates. Sir Henry Clinton abandoned the forts on hear- 
ing of his defeat, and returned to New York " a sadder and 
wiser man." 

Beverley House. — Passing Cohn's Hook, pronounced Conno- 
sook, where Hendrich Hudson anchored on his way up the river 
September 14, 1609, we see before us on the right bank a point 
coming down to the shore marked by a boat house. This is 
Beverley Dock, and directly up the river bank about an eighth 
of a mile stood the old Beverley House, where Benedict Arnold 
had his headquarters when in command of West Point. The 
old house, a good specimen of colonial times, was unfortunately 
burned in 1892, and with it went the most picturesque landmark 
of the most dramatic incident of the Revolution. It will be re- 
membered that Arnold returned to the Beverley House after his 
midnight interview with Andre at Haverstraw, and immediately 



114 THE HUDSON. 

upon the capture of Andre the following day, that Colonel Jami- 
son sent a letter to Arnold, advising him of the fact. It was the 
morning of September 4th. General Washington was on his 
way to West Point, coming across the country from Connecticut. 
On arriving, however, at the river, just above the present sta- 
tion of Garrisons, he became interested in examining some de- 
fenses, and sent Alexander Hamilton forward to the Beverley 
House, saying that he would come later, requesting the family 
•to proceed with their breakfast and not to await his arrival. 
Alexander Hamilton and General Lafayette sat gayly chatting 
with Mrs. Arnold and her husband when the letter from Jamison 
was received. Arnold glanced at the contents, rose and excused 
himself from the table, beckoning to his wife to follow him, bade 
her good-bye, told her he was a ruined man and a traitor, kissed 
his little boy in the cradle, rode to Beverley Dock, and ordered 
his men to pull off and go down the river. The "Vulture," 
an English man-of-war, was near Teller's Point, and received a 
traitor, whose miserable treachery branded him with eternal 
infamy in both continents. It is said that he lived long 
enough to be hissed in the House of Commons, as he 
once took his seat in the gallery, and he died friendless, and 
despised. It is also said, when Talleyrand arrived in Havre on 
foot from Paris, in the darkest hour of the French Revolution, 
pursued by the bloodhounds of the reign of terror, and was 
about to secure a passage to the United States, he asked the 
landlord of the hotel whether any Americans were staying at 
his house, as he was going across the water, and would like a 
letter to a person of influence in the New World. " There is a 
gentleman up-stairs from Britain or America," was the response. 



THE HUDSON. 115 

He pointed the way, and Talleyrand ascended the stairs. In a 
dimly lighted room sat the man of whom the great minister of 
France was to ask a favor. He advanced, and poured forth in 
elegant French and broken English, " I am a wanderer, and an 
exile. 1 am forced to fly to the New World without a friend or 
home. You are an American. Give me, then, I beseech you, a 
letter of yours, so that I may be able to earn my bread." The 
strange gentleman rose. With a look that Talleyrand never 
forgot, he retreated toward the door of the next chamber. He 
spoke as he retreated, and his voice was full of suffering: "I 
am the only man of the New World who can raise his hand to 
God and say, ' I have not a friend, not one, in America ! } " 
"Who are you?" he cried — "your name?" "My name is 
Benedict Arnold ! " 

Andre's fate on the other hand was widely lamented. He was 
universally beloved by his comrades and possessed a rich fund 
of humor which often bubbled over in verse. It is a strange co- 
incidence that his best poetic attempt on one of Anthony 
Wayne's exploits near Fort Lee closed with a graphically pro- 
phetic verse : 

" And now I've closed my epic strain, 
I tremble as I show it, 
Lest this same Warrior-Drover Wayne 
Should ever catch the poet." 

By a singular coincidence he did : General Wayne was in 
command of the Tarrytown and Tappan country where Andre 
was captured and executed. It is also said that these lines 
were published by one of the Tory papers in New York the very 
day of Andre's capture. One of the old-time characters on the 



116 THE HUDSON. 

Hudson, known as Uncle Richard, has recently thrown new 
light on the capture of Andre by claiming, with a touch of genu- 
ine humor, that it was entirely due to the " effects " of cider 
which had been freely " dispensed " that day by a certain Mr. 
Horton, a farmer in the neighborhood. 

It is impossible even in these later years, not to speak of 
twenty-five or fifty years ago, to travel along the shores of 
Haverstraw Bay or among the passes of the Highlands, without 
hearing some old-time stories about Arnold and Andre, and it 
would be strange indeed if a little romance had not here and 
there become blended with the real facts. Uncle Richard's ac- 
count is undoubtedly the best since the days of Knickerbocker. 
" Benedict Arnold, you know, had command of West Point, and 
he knew that the place was essential to the success of the Con- 
tinental cause. He plotted, as everybody knows, to turn it over 
to the enemy, and in the correspondence which he carried on 
with General Clinton, young Andre, Clinton's aid, did all the 
writing. Things were coming to a focus, when a meeting took 
place between Arnold and Clinton's representative, Andre, at 
the house of Joshua Hett Smith, near Haverstraw. Andre 
came on the British ship Vulture, which he left at Croton Point, 
in Haverstraw Bay. Well," so runs Uncle Richard's story, " it 
took a long time to get matters settled ; they ' confabbed ' till 
after daybreak. Then Arnold started back to the post which 
he had plotted to surrender. But daylight was no time for 
Andre to return to the Vulture, so he hung round waiting for 
night. 

" During that day, some men who were working for James 
Horton, a farmer on the ridge overlooking the river, who 



THE HUDSON. 117 

gave his men good rations of cider, drank a little too much of 
the hard stuff. They felt good, and thought it would be a fine 
joke to load and fire off an old disabled cannon which lay a mile 
or so away on the bank. They hauled it to the point now called 
Cockroft Point, propped it up, and then the spirit of fun— and 
hard cider— prompted them to train the old piece on the British 
ship Vulture, lying at anchor in the Bay. The Vulture's peo- 
ple must have overestimated the source of the fire, for the ship 
dropped down the river, and Andre had to abandon the idea of 
returning by that means. He crossed the river at King's Ferry, 
and while on his way overland was captured at Tarrytown. 

''Of course, the three brave men who refused to be bribed 
deserve all the glory they ever had ; if it were not for them, who 
knows but the revolutionary war would have had a different 
ending. But they never would have had a chance to capture 
Andre if it had not been for James Horton's men warming up on 
hard cider. Hard cider broke the plans of Arnold, it hung 
Andre, and it saved West Point." A boy misguided Grouchy en 
route to Waterloo. On what small hinges turn the destinies of 
nations ! 

All the way from Anthony's Nose to Beverley Dock, where we 
have been lingering over the story of Andre, we have been liter- 
ally turning a kaleidoscope of blended history and beauty, with 
scarcely time to note the delightful homes of John S. Gilbert, 
on the left bank, just above Fort Montgomery ; of William and 
Arthur Pell ; of J. Pierpont Morgan, Alfred Pell, Charles Tra- 
cy, Captain Roe, " Benny Havens " and John Bigelow ; or on the 
east bank, the residences of the late Hamilton Fish (seen just 
above Beverley Dock) ; Col. Arden, H. W. Beecher, Edward 



118 THE HUDSON. 

Pierpont, J. M. Toucey, W. Livingston and Samuel Sloafte, some 
of them not visible from the deck of the Day Boats, but seen by 
the pedestrian on either side of the river. The bold tower on 
the right, reminding one of a new edition of the spire of the 
Tribune Building, is the home of William H. Osborn, just north 
of Sugar Loaf Mountain ; the mountain being so named as it re- 
sembles, to one coming up the river, the old-fashioned conical- 
shaped sugar-loaf, which was formerly suspended by a string 
over the centre of the hospitable Dutch tables, and swung around 
to be occasionally nibbled at, which in good old Knickerbocker 
days, was thought to be the best and only orthodox way of 
sweetening tea. 

Buttermilk Falls, so christened by Washington Irving, is 
a pretty little cascade on the west bank. Like sparkling wit, it 
is often dry, and the tourist is exceptionally fortunate who sees 
it in full-dress costume after a heavy shower, when it rushes 
over the rocks in floods of snow-white foam. Highland Falls is 
the name of a small village a short distance west of the river, on 
the bluff, but not seen from the deck of the steamer. The large 
hotel north of the falls is known as " Cranston- s," and has a com- 
manding and pleasant site. It is, however, one mile and a half 
from the Parade Ground — the principal attraction of West 
Point ; and the visitor who has only a few days at his command, 
will perhaps gather more information by locating at West Point 
proper, whose well constructed dock the steamer is now ap- 
proaching. 

West Point, taken all in all, is the most beautiful tourist 
spot on the Hudson. Excursionists by the Day Boats from New 
York, returning by afternoon steamer, have three hours to visit 



THE HUDSON. 119 

the various places of history and beauty. To make an easy 
mathematical formula or picturesque " rule of three " statement, 
what Quebec is to the St. Lawrence, West Point is to the Hud- 
son. If the Citadel of Quebec is more imposing, the view of the 
Hudson at this place is grander than that of the St. Lawrence, 
and the ruins of Fort Putnam are almost as venerable as the 
Heights of Abraham. The sensation of the visitor is, moreover, 
somewhat the same in both places as to the environment of law 
and authority. To get the daily character and quality of West 
Point one should spend at least twenty-four hours within its 
borders, and a good hotel, the only one on the Government 
grounds, will be found central and convenient to everything of 
interest. The parade and drills at sunset hour can only be seen 
in this way. Carriages and omnibuses meet all trains and 
boats, with a fixed tariff of twenty-five cents for each passen- 
ger ; twenty-five cents for each trunk or box ; two dollars per 
hour for carriage, or after the first hour one dollar and a half. 
If the day is not too warm and the passenger is without baggage, 
it is a pleasant walk of a quarter of a mile to the Parade Ground, 
or of about half a mile to the hotel. 

The first building to the right, to one ascending from the land- 
ing, is the Riding-Hall, completed in 1885. Here the cadet 
learns cavalry exercises, " enjoying » many a fall which would 
often be a serious matter were it not that the building is floored 
with tan-bark. To the rear of this are stables, accommodating 
one hundred and twenty-five horses. The path or roadway leads 
one onward and upward to Grant Hall or Mess Hall where, be- 
tween meal hours, can be seen portraits of noted generals of the 
Civil War. Beyond this is the Hospital, the Academic Build- 



120 THE HUDSON. 

ing and the Administration Building-, headquarters for the Post. 
Here also will be seen the Library, crowned with a dome, the 
Chapel, Gymnasium, Recitation Rooms, etc. 

Near tlie Flag-staff a fine collection of old cannon, old 
chains, old shell, and the famous " swamp angel " grin, used 
at Charleston in '64, will be found. Fort Knox was just above 
the landing. Near the river bank can also be seen Dade's 
Monument, Kosciusko's Garden, and Kosciusko's Monument. 
Old Fort Clinton was located on the plain, near the monument ; 
and far above, like a sentinel left at his post, Fort Putnam looks 
down upon the changes of a hundred years. But of all places 
around West Point, Kosciusko's Garden seems the most suggest- 
ive, connected as it is with a hero not only of his own country, 
but with a man ready to battle for free institutions, taking up 
the sublime words of the old Roman orator, "Where Liberty is 
there is my country." A beautiful spring will be found near the 
Garden, and the indenture of a cannon-ball is still pointed out in 
the rocks, which must have disturbed the patriot's meditations. 

The Chapel was completed in 1836 ; the Library in 1841 ; Ca- 
det Mess in 1852 ; Cadet Hospital in 1881 ; monument to General 
Thayer in 1883 ; Gymnasium in 1891 ; the Battle Monument, 
which cost about $50,000, surmounted by a figure of victory, in 
1894, " Dedicated to the memory of officers and enlisted men of 
the regular army who fell during the Civil War." 

Tlie United States Military Academy. — Soon after the 
close of the War of the Revolution, Washington suggested West 
Point as the site of a military academy, and, in 1793, in his an- 
nual message, recommended it to Congress, which in 1794 orga- 
nized a corps of artillerists to be here stationed with thirty-two 






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THE HUDSON. 123 

cadets, enlarging the number in 1798 to fifty-six. In 1808 it was 
increased to one hundred and fifty-six, and in 1812 to two hun- 
dred and sixty. Each Congressman has the appointment of one 
cadet, supplemented by ten appointed by the President of the 
United States. These cadets are members of the regular army, 
subject to its regulations for eight years, viz : during four years 
of study and four years after graduating. The candidates are 
examined in June, each year, and must be physically sound as 
well as mentally qualified. The course is very thorough, es- 
pecially in higher mathematics. The Cadets go into camp in 
July and August, and this is the pleasantest time to visit the 
Point. 

Among memorials of historical interest to be seen by the visi- 
tor are captured Battle Flags, in the Chapel Building, which 
were surrendered by Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown : also, tro- 
phies of the Mexican war, and tablets containing names of 
prominent American officers of the Revolution, one being sig- 
nificantly left blank, silently proclaiming the eternal infamy of 
Arnold. The Opposite wall presents the names of generals of 
the Mexican War. Fort Clinton will especially interest the 
visitor, as it is one of the old Revolutionary forts, " enlarged for 
the instruction of the cadets in practicing military engineering.'' 
As Wakefield's new guide to the Post tells us : — " It contains a 
large number of guns, captured in the Civil war, including 
' Whistling Dick,' taken at Vicksburg, a large iron gun taken 
at Charleston, which burst and killed forty men ; two brass 
guns from Cedar Creek, marked 'Jeff Davis,' and ' Johnson ; ' 
also part of chain which was used to block the passage oi vessels 
up the Tennessee river." 



124 THE HUDSON. 






West Point during- the revolution was the Gibraltar of the 
Hudson and her forts were regarded almost impregnable. Fort 
Putnam should be rebuilt as an enduring- monument to the 
bravery of American soldiers. Flirtation Walk, in spite of its 
name, is interesting even to the most prosaic individual, winding- 
as it does along the cliff, from Battle Monument past Battery 
Knox to Kosciusko's Garden, from which point a flight of stone 
steps leads up to the Parade Ground, near the Library. 

The best way to study West Point, however, is not in the volu- 
minous or even condensed pages of a guide book, but to visit it 
and see its real life, to wander amid these old associations, and 
ask, when necessary, intelligent questions, which are everywhere 
courteously answered. The view north from the veranda of the 
West Point Hotel, if seen in a summer evening, is one long to be 
remembered. It has often seemed to the writer of this hand-book 
that the mountains here are like the leaves of an open volume, 
with the river lying between them for a book-mark — as indica- 
ted in the Highland section of his poem " The Hudson: " 

On either side these mountain glens 

Lie open like a massive book, 
Whose words were graved with iron pens. 

And lead into the eternal rock: 

Which evermore shall here retain 

The annals time cannot erase, 
And while these granite leaves remain 

This crystal ribbon marks the place. 



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THE HUDSON. 127 



WEST POINT TO NEWBURGH. 

The steamer sails too near the west bank to give a view of the 
magnificent plateau with Parade Ground and Government 
Buildings, but on rounding the Point a picture of marvelous 
beauty breaks at once upon the vision. On the left the massive 
indented ridge of Old Cro' Nest and Storm King, and on the 
right Mount Taurus, or Bull Hill, and Break Neck, while still 
further beyond toward the east sweeps the Fishkill range, senti- 
neled by South Beacon, 1,625 feet in height, from whose summit 
midnight gleams aroused the countryside for leagues and scores 
of miles in those seven long years when men toiled and prayed 
for freedom. Close at hand on the right will be seen Constitu- 
tion Island, formerly the home of Miss Susan Warner, who died 
in 1885, author of " Queechy " and the "Wide, Wide World." 
Here the ruins of the old fort are seen. The place was once 
called Martalaer's Rock Island. A chain was stretched across 
the river at this point to intercept the passage of boats up the 
Hudson, but proved ineffectual, like the one at Anthony's Nose, 
as the impetus of the boats snapped them both like cords. 

Some years ago, when the first delegation of Apache Indians 
was brought to Washington to sign a treaty of peace, the In- 
dians were taken for an " outing " up the Hudson, by General O. 
O. Howard and Dr. Herman Bendell, Superintendent of Indian 
Affairs for Arizona. It is said that they noted with cold indif- 
ference the palaces along the river front: "the artistic ter- 
races, 1>he well-kept, sloping lawns, the clipped hedges and the 
ivy-grown walls made no impression on them, but when the 



128 THE HUDSON. 

magnificent picture of the Hudson above West Point revealed 
itself, painted by the rays of the sinking sun, these wild men 
stood erect, raised their hands high above their heads and ut- 
tered a monosyllabic expression of delight, which was more ex- 
pressive than volumes of words." 

Sir Robert Temple also rises into rapture over the northern 
Gate of the Highlands. "One of the fairest spectacles to be 
seen on the earth's surface. Not on any other river or strait— 
not on Ganges or Indus, on the Dardanelles or the Bosphorus, 
on the Danube or the Rhine, on the Neva or the Nile — have I 
ever observed so fairy-like a scene as this on the Hudson. The 
only water-view to rival it is that of the Sea of Marmora, opposite 
Constantinople." 

Most people who visit our river, naturally desire a brilliant sun- 
lit day for their journey, and with reason, but there are effects, 
in fog and rain and driving mist, only surpassed amid the Kyles 
of Bute, in Scotland. The traveler is fortunate, who sees the 
Hudson in many phases, and under .various atmospheric con- 
ditions. A midnight view is peculiarly impressive when the 
mountain spirits of Rodman Drake answer to the call of his 
"Culprit Fay." 

" 'Tis the middle watch of a summer night, 
The earth is dark, hut the heavens are bright, 
The moon looks down on Old Cro' Nest- 
She mellows the shade on his shaggy breast, 
And seems his huge grey form to throw 
In a silver cone on the wave below." 

It is said that the "Culprit Fay" was written by Drake in 
three days, and grew out of a discussion which took place in a 



THE HUDSON. 129 

stroll through this part of the Highlands between Irving, Hal- 
leck, Cooper and himself, as to the filling of a new country with 
old-time legends. Drake died in 1820. Halleck's lines to his 
memory are among the sweetest in our language. It is said that 
Halleck, on hearing Drake read his poem, " The American 
Flag," sprang to his feet, and in a semi-poetic transport, con- 
cluded the lines with burning words, which Drake afterwards 

appended : 

" Forever float that standard sheet, 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 

With freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us." 

Just opposite Old Cro' Nest is the village of Cold Spring, on 
the east bank, which receives its name naturally from a cold 
spring in the vicinity ; and it is interesting to remember that 
the famous Parrott guns were made at this place, and many im- 
plements of warfare during our civil strife. The foundry was 
started by Gouverneur Kemble in 1828, and brought into wide 
renown by the inventive genius of Major Parrott. A short dis- 
tance north of the village is 

Undercliff, (built by John C. Hamilton, son of Alexander 

Hamilton, but more particularly associated with the memory of 

the poet, Col. Geo. P. Morris), lies, in fact, under the cliff and 

shadow of Mount Taurus, and has a fine outlook upon the river 

and surrounding mountains. Standing on the piazza, we see 

directly in front of us Old Cro' Nest, and it was here that the 

poet wrote : 

" Where Hudson's wave o'er silvery sands 

Winds through the hills afar, 

Old Cro' Nest like a monarch stands 

Crowned with a single star.' 1 '' 



130 THE HUDSON. 

Few writers were better known in their own day than the poet 
of Undercliff, who wrote " My Mother's Bible," and " Woodman, 
Spare that Tree." On one occasion, when Mr. Russell was sing- 
ing it at Boulogne, an old gentleman in the audience, moved by 
the simple and touching beauty of the lines, 

" Forgive the foolish tear, 
But let the old oak stand," 

rose and said : "I beg your pardon, but was the tree really 
spared? " "It was," answered Mr. Russell, and the old gentle- 
man resumed his seat, amid the plaudits of the whole assembly. 

Truly 

" Its glory and renown 

Are spread o'er land and sea." 

The first European name given to Storm King was Klinkers- 
berg, (so called by Hendrich Hudson, from its glistening and 
broken rock). It was styled by the Dutch "Butter Hill," from 
its shape, and, with Sugar Loaf on the eastern side below the 
Point, helped to set out the tea-table for the Danderberg gob- 
lins. It was christened by Willis, " Storm King," and may well 
be regarded the El Capitan of the Highlands. Breakneck is op- 
posite, on the east side, where St. Anthony's Pace was blasted 
away. In this mountain solitude there was a shade of reason in 
giving that solemn countenance of stone the name of St. An- 
thony, as a good representative of monastic life ; and, by a qui^st 
sarcasm, the full-length nose below was probably suggested. 

The mountain opposite Cro' Nest is " Bull Hill," or more clas- 
sically, " Mt. Taurus." It is said that there was formerly a wild 
bull in these mountains, which had failed to win the respect and 
confidence of the inhabitants, so the mountaineers organized a 




WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS. NEWBURGH. 



THE HUDSON. 133 

hunt and drove him over the hill, whose name stands a monu- 
ment to his exit. The point at the foot of " Mount Taurus " is 
known as "Little Stony Point." 

The Highlands now trend off to the northeast, and we see 
North Beacon, or Grand Sachem Mountain, and Old Beacon 
about half a mile to the north. The mountains were relit with 
beacon-fires in 1883, in honor of the centennials of Fishkill and 
Newburgh, and were plainly seen sixty miles distant. 

This section was known by the Indians as " Wequehache," or, 
"the Hill Country," and the entire range was called by the In- 
dians "the endless hills," a name not inappropriate to this 
mountain bulwark. As pictured in our "Long Drama," given 
at the Newburgh Centennial of the disbanding of the American 

Army, 

That ridge along our eastern coast, 

From Carolina to the Sound, 
Opposed its front to England's host, 

And heroes at each pass were found. 

A vast primeval palisade, 

With bastions bold and wooded crest, 
A bulwark strong by nature made 

To guard the valley of the west. 

Along its heights the beacons gleamed, 

It formed the nation's battle-line, 
Firm as the rocks and cliffs where dreamed 

The soldier-seers of Palestine. 

It was also believed by the Indians that, in ancient days, ' ' be- 
fore the Hudson poured its waters from the lakes, the Highlands 
formed one vast prison, within whose rocky bosom the omnipo- 
tent Manitou confined the rebellious spirits who repined at his 



134 THE HUDSON. 

control. Here, bound in adamantine chains, or jammed in rifted 
pines, or crushed by ponderous rocks, they groaned for many 
an age. At length the conquering Hudson, in its career toward 
the ocean, burst open their prison-house, rolling its tide triumph- 
antly through the stupendous ruins." 

Pollopel's Island, east of the steamer's route, was once re- 
garded as a haunted spot, but its only witches are said to be 
snakes too lively to be enchanted. In old times, the " new 
hands " on the sloops were unceremoniously dipped at this place, 
so as to be proof-christened against the goblins of the High- 
lands. Here also another useless " impediment " was put across 
the Hudson in 1779, a chevaux-de-frise with iron-pointed spikes 
thirty feet long, hidden under water, strongly secured by cribs 
of stone. This, however, was not broken and would probably 
have done effective work if some traitor to the cause had not 
guided the British captains through an unprotected passage. 

Cornwall-on-the-Hudson.— This locality N. P. Willis 
selected as the most picturesque point on the Hudson. The 
village lies in a lovely valley, which Mr. Beach has styled in 
his able description, as "an offshoot of the Ramapo, up which 
the storm-winds of the ocean drive, laden with the purest and 
freshest air." Idlewild, with its pleasant glen and sunny slope, 
has a beautiful location in the very centre of this charming land- 
scape, and is one of the points to be visited. 

The home of the late Rev. E. P. Roe is also near at hand> 
whose face was a familiar one a few years ago on the Hudson 
River Day Boats. Edward W. Bok's frequently quoted and 
appreciative article in one of the Chicago papers, presents this 
beautiful section in the briefest compass. 



THE HUDSON. 135 

" It is now nearly forty-five years ago since Nathaniel P. Wil- 
lis first made known his ' Icllewild ' retreat, and more than 
twenty-five years have passed since he left it to be taken to 
Mount Auburn, near Boston. The ' Idlewild ' of to-day is still 
green to the memory of the poet. Since Willis' death the place 
has passed in turn into various hands, until now it belongs to a 
wealthy New York lawyer, who has spent thousands of dollars on 
the house and grounds. The old house still stands, and here and 
there in the grounds remains a suggestion of the time of Willis. 
The famous pine-drive leading to the mansion, along which the 
greatest literary lights of the Knickerbocker period passed dur- 
ing its palmy days, still remains intact, the dense growth of the 
trees only making the road the more picturesque. The brook, at 
which Willis often sat, still runs on through the grounds as of 
yore. In the house, everything is remodeled and remoderrrized. 
The room from whose windows Willis was wont to look over the 
Hudson, and where he did most of his charming writing, is now 
a bedchamber, modern in its every appointment, and suggesting 
its age only by the high ceiling and curious mantel. Only a few 
city blocks from ' Idlewild ' is the house where lived E. P. Roe, 
the author of so many popular novels, as numerous, almost, in 
number as the several hundreds of thousands of circulation 
which they secured. The Roe house is unoccupied, and has 
been since the death of the novelist. For a time, the widow 
and some members of the family resided there, but Mrs. Roe 
now lives in New York, and the Cornwall place is for sale. 
There are twenty-three acres to it in all, and, save what was oc- 
cupied by the house, every inch of ground was utilized by the 
novelist in his hobby for fine fruits and rare flowers. Now noth- 



136 THE HUDSON. 

ing remains of the beauty once so characteristic of the place. 
For four years the grounds have missed the care of their creator. 
Where once were the novelist's celebrated strawberry beds, are 
now only grass and weeds. Everything is grown over, only a 
few trees remaining as evidence that the grounds were ever 
known for their cultivated products. A large board sign an- 
nounces the fact that the entire place is for sale." 

Cornwall has been for many years a favorite resort of the 
Hudson Valley and her roofs shelter in the summer season prob- 
ably six thousand people. The road completed in 1876, from 
Cornwall to West Point, is too steep for bicycling, but a pedes- 
trian stroll or a ride in a well-springed carriage gives one a 
pleasant acquaintance with the wooded Highlands. It passes 
over the plateau of Cro' Nest and winds down the Cornwall 
slope of Storm King. The tourist who sees Cro' Nest and Storm 
King only from the river, has but little idea of their extent. 
Cro' Nest plateau is about one thousand feet above the Parade 
Ground of West Point, and overlooks it as a rocky balcony. 
These mountains, with their wonderful lake system, are, in fact, 
the "Central Park" of the Hudson. Within a radius of ten 
miles are clustered over forty lakes, and we very much doubt if 
one person in a thousand ever heard of them. A convenient 
map giving the physical geography of this section would be of 
great service to the mountain visitor. The Cornwall pier, built 
by the New York, Ontario and Western Bailroad in 1892 for coal 
and freight purposes, will be seen on our left near the Cornwall 
dock. This railroad leaves the West Shore at this point and 
forms a pleasant tourist route to the beautiful inland villages 
and resorts of the State. 



THE HUDSON. 137 



NEWBURGH TO POUGHKEEPSIE. 

Newburgli, (60 miles from New York, population 24,536). 
Approaching- the city of Newburgh, we see a building of rough 
stone, one story high, with steep roof— known as Washington's 
Headquarters. For several years prior to, and during the Revo- 
lution, this was the home of Jonathan Hasbrouck, known far and 
wide for business integrity and loyalty to liberty. This house 
was built by him, apparently, in decades ; the oldest part, the 
north-east corner, in 1750; the south-east corner, in 1760, and 
the remaining half in 1770. It fronted west on the King's high- 
way, now known as Liberty street, with a garden and family 
burial plot to the east, lying between the house and the river. 
It was restored as nearly as possible to its original character on 
its purchase by the State in 1849, and it is now the treasure- 
house of many memories, and of valuable historic relics. A 
descriptive catalogue, prepared for the trustees, under act of 
May 11, 1874, by a patient and careful historian, Dr. E. M. Rut- 
tenber, will be of service to the visitor and can be obtained on 
the grounds. The following facts, condensed from his admirable 
historical sketch, are of practical interest : 

" Washing-ton's Headquarters, or the Hasbrouck house, 
is situated in the south-east part of the city, constructed of rough 
stone, one story high, fifty-six feet front by forty-six feet in 
depth, and located on what was originally Lot No. 2, of the 
German Patent, with title vested in Heman Schoneman, a native 
of the Palatinate of Germany, who sold, in 1721, to James 



138 THE HUDSON. 

Alexander, who subsequently sold to Alexander Colden and 
Burger Meynders, by whom it was conveyed to Jonathan 
Hasbrouck, the grandson of Abraham Hasbrouck, one of the 
Husfuenot founders of New Paltz. He was a man of marked 
character ; of fine physique, being six feet and four inches in 
height ; was colonel of the militia of the district, and in frequent 
service in guarding the passes of the Highlands. His occupa- 
tion was that of a farmer, a miller, and a merchant. He died 
in 1780. The first town meeting for the Precinct of New burgh 
was held here on the first Tuesday in April, 1763, when its owner 
was elected supervisor. Public meetings continued to be held 
here for several years. During the early part of the Revolution, 
the Committee of Safety, of the Precinct, assembled here ; here 
military companies were organized, and here the regiment 
which Col. Hasbrouck commanded assembled, to move hence to 
the defence of the Highland forts. 

From this brief outline, it will be seen that the building is 
singularly associated with the history of the Old as well as of 
the New World : with the former through the original grantee 
of the land, recalling the wars which devastated the Palatinate 
and sent its inhabitants, fugitive and penniless, to other parts 
of Europe and to America; through his successor with the 
Huguenots of France, and, through the public meetings which 
assembled here, and especially through its occupation by Wash- 
ington, with the struggle for American Independence. 

In the spring of 1782 Washington made this building his 
Headquarters, and remained here until August 18th, 1783, on 
the morning of which day he took his departure from Newburgh. 
At this place he passed through the most trying period of the 



THE HUDSON. 139 

Revolution : the year of inactivity on the part of Congress, of 
distress throughout the country, and of complaint and discon- 
tent in the army, the latter at one time bordering- on revolt 
among* the officers and soldiers. 

It was at this place, on the 22d day of May, 1782, that Col. 
Nicola, on behalf of himself and others, proposed that Wash- 
ington should become King, for the "national advantage," a 
proposal that was received by Washington with ' ' surprise and 
astonishment," "viewed with abhorrence," and "reprehended 
with severity." The temptation which was thus repelled by 
Washing-ton, had its origin with that portion of the officers of 
the army, who, while giving- their aid heartily to secure an inde- 
pendent government, nevertheless believed that that govern- 
ment should be a monarchy. The rejection of the proposition 
by Washington was not the only sig-nificant result. The rank 
ahd file of the army rose up against it, and around their camp- 
fires chanted their purpose in Billings' song, "No King- but 
God ! " From that hour a Republic became the only possible 
form of government for the enfranchised Colonies. 

The inattention of Congress to the payment of the army, dur- 
ing- the succeeding winter, gave rise to an equally important 
episode in the history of the war. On the 10th of March, 1783, 
the first of the famous " Newburgh Letters" was issued, in 
which, by implication at least, the army was advised to revolt. 
The letter was followed by an anonymous manuscript notice tor a. 
public meeting of officers on the succeeding- Tuesday. Wash- 
ington was equal to the emergency. He expressed his disap- 
probation of the whole proceeding, and with great wisdom, re- 
quested the field officers, with one commissioned officer from 



140 THE HUDSON. 

each company, to meet on the Saturday preceding the time ap- 
pointed by the anonymous notice. He attended this meeting 
and delivered before it one of the most touching and effective 
addresses on record. When he closed his remarks, the officers 
unanimously resolved "to reject with disdain"' the infamous 
proposition contained in the anonymous address. 

The meeting of officers referred to was held at the New Build- 
ing, or " Temple " as it was called, in New Windsor, but Wash- 
ington's address was written at his Headquarters. The " New- 
burgh Letters," to which it was a reply, were written by Major 
John Armstrong, Aid-de-Camp to General Gates. The anony- 
mously called meeting was not held. The motives of its projec- 
tors we will not discuss ; but its probable effect, had it been suc- 
cessful, must be considered in connection with Washington's en- 
comium of the result of the meeting which he had addressed : 
"Had this day been wanting, the world had never known the 
height to which human greatness is capable of attaining." 

Notice of the cessation of hostilities was proclaimed to the 
army April 19th, 1783. It was received with great rejoicings by 
the troops at Newburgh, and under Washington's order, was the 
occasion of an appropriate celebration. In the evening, signal 
Beacon lights proclaimed the joyous news to the surrounding 
country. Thirteen cannon came pealing up from Fort Putnam, 
which were followed by afeu-de-jok rolling along the lines. The 
. mountain sides resounded and echoed like tremendous peals of 
thunder, and the flashing from thousands of fire-arms, in the 
darkness of the evening, was like unto vivid flashes of lightning 
from the clouds. From this time furloughs were freely granted 
to soldiers who wished to return to their homes, and when the 



THE HUDSON. 141 

army was finally disbanded those absent were discharged from 
service without being required to return. That portion of the 
army, which remained at Newburgh on guard duty, after the 
removal of the main body to West Point in June, were partici- 
pants here in the closing scenes of the disbandment, when, on 
the morning of November 3rd, 1783, the proclamation of Con- 
gress and the farewell orders of Washington were read, and the 
last word of command given. ' From Hon. John J. Monell's 
" Handbook of Washington's Headquarters '' we also quote a 
general description of the house and its appearance when occu- 
pied by the Commander-in-Chief. "Washington's family con- 
sisted of himself, his wife, and his Aid-de-Camp, Major Tench 
Tighlman. The large room, which is entered from the piazza 
on the east, known as ' the room with seven doors and one win- 
dow/ was used as the dining and sitting-room. The northeast 
room was Washington's bedroom and the one adjoining it on the 
left was occupied by him as a private office. The family room was 
that in the south-east ; the kitchen was the southwest room ; the 
parlor the northwest room. Between the latter and the former 
was the hall and staircase and the store-room, so called for hav- 
ing been used by Col. Hasbrouck and subsequently by his widow 
as a store. The parlor was mainly reserved for Mrs. Washing- 
ton and her guests. A Mrs. Hamilton, whose name frequently 
appears in Washington's account book, was his housekeeper, and 
in the early part of the war made a reputation for her zeal in his 
service, which Thacher makes note of and Washington acknowl- 
edges in his reference to an exchange of salt. There was little 
room for the accommodation of guests, but it is presumed that 
the chambers were reserved for that purpose. Washington's 



142 THE HUDSON. 

guests, however, were mainly connected with the army and had 
quarters elsewhere. Even Lafayette had rooms at DeGrove's 
Hotel when a visitor at Headquarters. 

"The building- is now substantially in the condition it was 
during- Washington's occupation of it. The same massive tim- 
bers span the ceiling; the old fire-place with its wide-open 
chimney is ready for the huge back-logs of yore ; the seven 
doors are in their places ; the rays of the moi ning sun still 
stream through the one window ; no alteration in form has been 
made in the old piazza — the adornments on the walls, if such the 
ancient hostess had, have alone been changed for souvenirs of the 
heroes of the nation's independence. In presence of these sur- 
roundings, it requires but little effort of the imagination to restore 
the -departed guests. Forgetting not that this was Washing- 
ton's private residence, rather than a place for the transaction 
of public business, we may, in the old sitting-room respread 
the long oaken table, listen to the blessing invoked on the 
morning meal, hear the cracking of joints, and the mingled 
hum of conversation. The meal dispensed, Mrs. Washington 
retires to appear at her flower beds or in her parlor to receive 
her morning calls. Colfax, the captain of the Life-Guard, 
enters to receive the orders of the day— perhaps a horse and 
guard for Washington to visit New Windsor, or a barge for 
Fishkill or West Point, is required ; or it may be Washington 
remains at home and at his writing desk conducts his corres- 
pondence, or dictates orders for army movements. The old 
arm-chair, sitting in the corner yonder, is still ready for its 
former occupant. 

"The dinner hour of five o'clock approaches ; the guests of the 



THE HUDSON. 143 

day have already arrived. Steuben, the iron drill-master and 
German soldier of fortune, converses with Mrs. Washing-ton. 
He has reduced the simple marksmen of Bunker Hill to the 
discipline of the armies of Europe and tested their efficiency in 
the din of battle. He has leisure now, and scarcely knows how 
to find employment for his active mind. He is telling' his host- 
ess, in broken German-Engiish, of the whale (it proved to be an 
eel) he had caught in the river. Hear his hostess laugh ! And 
that is the voice of Lafayette, relating perhaps his adventures 
in escaping from France, or his mishap in attempting- to attend 
Mrs. Knox's last party. Wayne, of Stony Point ; Gates, of 
Saratoga; Clinton, the Irish-blooded Governor of New York, 
and their compatriots — we may place them all at times beside 
our Pater Patrice in this old room, and hear amid the mingled 
hum his voice declare: "Happy, thrice happy, shall they be 
pronounced hereafter, who have contributed anything, who have 
performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric 
of Freedom and Empire on the broad basis of independency; 
who have assisted in protecting the rights of human nature, 
and in establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all 
nations and religions." 

"In France, some fifty years after the Revolution, Marbois 
reproduced, as an entertainment for Lafayette, then an old man, 
this old sitting-room and its table scene. From his elegant 
saloon he conducted his guests, among whom were several 
Americans, to the room which he had prepared. There was a 
large open fire-place, and plain oaken floors; the ceiling was 
supported with large beams and whitewashed ; there were 
the seven small-sized doors and one window with heavy sash 



144 THE HUDSON. 

and small panes of glass. The furniture was plain and unlike 
any then in use. Down the centre of the room was an oaken 
table covered with dishes of meat and vegetables, decanters and 
bottles of wine, and silver mugs and small wine glasses. The 
whole had something the appearance of a Dutch kitchen. While 
the guests were looking around in surprise at this strange pro- 
cedure, the host, addressing himself to them said, ' Do you 
know where we now are ? ' Lafayette looked around, and, as if 
awakening from a dream, he exclaimed, ' Ah ! the seven doors 
and one window, and the silver camp goblets such as the Mar- 
shals of France used in mv youth. We are at Washington's 
Headquarters on the Hudson fifty years ago.' " 

The Hasbrouck family returned to their old home, made his- 
toric for all time, after the disbandment of the army and re- 
mained until it became the property of the State. On July 4th, 
1850, the place was formally dedicated by Major General Win- 
field Scott, Dedicatory Address delivered by John J. Monell, an 
Ode by Mary E. Monell, and an oration by Hon. John W. Ed- 
munds. The Centennial of the Disbanding of the Army was 
observed here October 18th, 1883. After the noonday procession 
of 10,000 men in line, three miles in length, with Governors and 
representative people from almost every State, 150,000 people, 
"ten acres" square, gathered in the historic grounds. Senator 
Bayard, of Delaware, was chairman of the day, Hon. William 
M. Evarts was the orator, and modestly speaking in the third 
person, Wallace Bruce, author of this hand-book, was the poet. 
No one there gathered can ever forget that afternoon of glorious 
sunlight or the noble pageant. The great mountains, which 
had so frequently been the bulwark of liberty and a place of 



THE HUDSON. 145 

refuge for our fathers, were all aglow with beauty, as if, like 
Horeb's bush, they too would open their lips in praise and 
thanksgiving. One of the closing sentences of Senator Evarts' 
address is unsurpassed in modern or ancient eloquence : " These 
rolling years have shown growth, forever growth, and strength, 
increasing strength, and wealth and numbers ever expanding, 
while intelligence, freedom, art, culture and religion have per- 
vaded and ennobled all this material greatness. Wide, how- 
ever, as is our land and vast our population to-day, these are 
not the limits to the name, the fame, the power of the life and 
character of Washington. If it could be imagined that this 
nation, rent by disastrous feuds, broken in its unity, should ever 
present the miserable spectacle of the undefiled garments of his 
fame parted among his countrymen, while for the seamless 
vesture of his virtue they cast lots — if this unutterable shame, if 
this immeasurable crime, should overtake this land and this 
people, be sure that no spot in the wide world is inhospitable to 
his glory, and no people in it but rejoices in the influence of his 
power and his virtue." In his lofty sentences the old heroes 
seemed to pass again in review before us, and the daily life of 
that heroic band, when Congress sat inactive and careless of its 
needs until the camp rose in mutiny, happily checked, how- 
ever, by Washington in a single sentence. It will be remem- 
bered that he began to read his manuscript without glasses, but 
was compelled to stop, and, as he adjusted them to his eyes, he 
said, "You see, gentlemen, that I have not only grown gray, but 
blind, in your service." It is needless to say that the "anony- 
mously called " meeting was not held. 



146 THE HUDSON. 

He quelled the half-paid mutineers, 

And bound them closer to the cause ; 
His presence turned their wrath to tears, 
f Their muttered threats to loud applause. 

The great Republic had its birth 

That hour beneath the army's wing, 
"Whose leader taught by native worth 

The man is grander than the king. 

Near at hand, and also plainly seen from the river, is the new- 
Tower of Victory, fifty-three feet high, costing- $67,000. It con- 
tains a life-size statue of Washington, in the act of sheathing- his 
sword, with bronze figures representing the Rifle, the Artillery, 
the Line Officer and Dragoon service of our country, with a 
bronze tablet on the east wall bearing the inscription : "This 
monument was erected under the authority of the Congress of 
the United States, and of the State of New York, in commemo- 
ration of the disbandment, under proclamation of the Continen- 
tal Congress, of October 18, 1783, of the armies, by whoso 
patriotic and military virtue, our national independence and 
sovereignty were established." The Belvidere, reached by a 
spiral staircase, is capable of holding one hundred persons, and 
the view therefrom takes in a wide extent of panoramic beauty. 
Newburgh has not only reason to be proud of her historical land- 
marks and her beautiful situation, but also of her commercial 
prosperity. In olden times, it was a great centre for all the 
western and southwestern district, farmers and lumbermen 
coming from long distances in the interior. Soon after the 
Revolution she was made a village, when there were only two 
others in the State. Before the days of the Erie canal, this 



THE HUDSON, 147 

was the the shortest route to Lake Erie, and was made by stage, 
via Ithaca. With increasing facilities of railway communica- 
tion, she has also easily held her own against all commercial 
rivals. The West Shore Railroad, the Erie Railway, the New 
York Central and the New York and New England across the 
river, and several Hudson river steamers, make her peculiarly 
central for Hudson river traffic. The city is also favored with 
beautiful driveways, amid charming country seats. The New 
Paltz road passes the site where General Wayne had his head- 
quarters, also, the " Balm of Gilead tree," which gave the name 
of Balmville to the suburban locality. Another road affords a 
glimpse of the "Vale of Avoca," named after the well-known 
glen in Ireland, of which Tom Moore has sweetly sung. Here, 
some say, a treacherous attempt was made on the life of Wash- 
ington, but it is not generally credited by critical historians. 
As the steamer leaves the dock, and we look back upon the fac- 
tories and commercial houses along the water front, crowned by 
noble streets of residence, with adjoining plateau, sweeping back 
in a vast semi-circle as a beautiful framework to the wide bay, 
we do not wonder that Hendrich Hudson established a prophetic 
record by writing " a very pleasant place to build a town." 

Fishkill-on-tlie-Hudson, (population 3,617). Directly op- 
posite Newburgh, one mile north of Denning's Point, (formerly 
the eastern dock of the Newburgh ferry), rises on a pleasant slope, 
the newer Fishkill of this region. A little more than a mile 
from the Landing, is the manufacturing village of Matteawan, 
closely connected by an electric railroad, and both towns, thus 
blended and joined, number about 11,000 people. Old Fishkill, 
or Fishkill Village, is about four miles inland, charmingly loca- 



148 THE HUDSON. 

ted, under the slope of the Fishkill range. This was once the 
largest village in Dutchess county, and was chosen for its secure 
position above the Highlands, as the place to which " should be 
removed the treasury and archives of the State, also, as the spot 
for holding the subsequent sessions of the Provincial Conven- 
tions," after they were driven from New York. A historical 
sketch of the town, by T. Van Wyck Brinkerhoff, presents 
many things of interest. " Its history, anterior to 1682, belongs 
to the red men of the valley, and, more than any other spot, this 
was the home of their priests. Here they performed their in- 
cantations and administered at their altars." According to 
Broadhead, "It would seem that the neighboring Indians es- 
teemed the peltries from Fishkill as charmed by the incanta- 
tions of the aboriginal enchanters who lived along its banks, and 
the beautiful scenery in which those ancient priests of the High- 
lands dwelt, is thus invested with new poetic associations." 
Dunlap speaks of them as "occupying the Highlands, called by 
them Kittatenny mountains. Their principal settlement, desig- 
nated Wiccapee, was situated in the vicinity of Anthony's Nose. 
Here too, lived the Wappingers, a war-like and brave tribe, ex- 
tending themselves along the Matteawan, along the Wappin- 
gers Kill and tributaries, along the Hudson, and to the north- 
ward, across the river into Ulster county. These and other 
tribes to the south, west and north, were parts of and tributaries 
to the great Iroquois confederation — the marvel for all time to 
come of a system of government so wise and politic, and for men 
so eloquent and daring. The Wappingers took part in the 
Dutch and Indian Wars of 1643, and 1663, led on by their war- 
chiefs, Wapperonk and Aepjen. A few Indian names are still 



THE HUDSON. 149 

remaining, and a few traces of their history still left standing. 
The name Matteawan is Indian, signifying ' Good Beaver 
Grounds,' and the name Wappinger still speaks of those who 
once owned the soil along the Hudson. Their name for the 
stream was Mawanassigh, or Mawenawasigh. Wiccapee and 
Shenondoah are also Indian names of places in Fishkill Hook, 
and East Fishkill, and Apoquague, still surviving as the name 
of a country post-office, was the Indian style of what is now 
called Silver Lake, signifying 'round pond.' In Fishkill Hook 
until quite recently, there were traces of their burial grounds, 
and many apple and pear trees are still left standing, set there 
by the hands of the red man before the country had been occu- 
pied by Europeans." 

To return to Brinkerhoff, "The first purchase of land in the 
county of Dutchess, was made in the town of Fishkill. On the 
8th day of February, 1682, a license was given by Thomas Don- 
gan, Commander-in-chief of the Province of New York, to Fran- 
cis Rombout and Gulian Ver Planck, to purchase a tract of land 
from the Indians. Under this license, they bought, on the 8th 
day of August, 1683, of the Wappinger Indians, all their right, 
title and interest to a certain large tract of land, afterward 
known as the Rombout precinct. Gulian Ver Planck died before 
the English patent was issued by Governor Dongan ; Stephanus 
Van Cortland was then joined in it with Rombout, and Jacobus 
Kipp substituted as the representative of the children of Gulian 
Ver Planck. On the 17th day of October, 1685, letters patent, 
under the broad seal of the Province of New York, were granted 
by King James the Second, and the parties to whom these let- 
ters patent were granted, became from that time the undisputed 



150 THE HUDSON. 

proprietors of the soil. There were 76,000 acres of these lands 
lying in Fishkill, and other towns taken from the patent, and 
9,000 acres lying in the limits of the town of Poughkeepsie. Be- 
sides paying the natives, as a further consideration for the privi- 
lege of their license, they were to pay the Commander-in-chief, 
Thomas Dongan, six bushels of good and merchantable winter 
wheat every year." In the Book of Patents, at Albany, Vol. 5, 
page 72, will be found the deed, of special interest to the his- 
torian and antiquarian. 

'•After the evacuation of New York, in the fall of 1776, and 
the immediate loss of the seaboard, with Long Island and part 
of New Jersey, Fishkill was at once crowded with refugees, as 
they were then called, who sought, by banishing themselves 
from their homes on Long Island and New York, to escape im- 
prisonment and find safety here. The interior army route to 
Boston passed through this place. Army stores, workshops, 
ammunition, etc., were established and deposited here." The 
Marquis De Chastellux, in his travels in North America, says ? 
"This town, in which there are not more than fifty houses in 
the space of two miles, has been long the principal depot of the 
American Army. It is there they have placed their magazines, 
their hospitals, their workshops, etc., but all of these form a 
town in themselves, composed of handsome large barracks, built 
in the woods at the foot of the mountains : for the American 
Army, like the Romans in many respects, have hardly any other 
winter quarters than wooden towns, or barricaded camps, which 
may be compared to the 'hiemalia' of the Romans." These 
barracks were situated on the level plateau between the resi- 
dence of Mr. Cotheal and the mountains. Portions of these 



THE HUDSON. 151 

grounds were no doubt then covered with, timber. Guarding 
the approach from the south, stockades and fortifications were 
erected on commanding- positions, and regularly manned by 
detachments from the camp. 

"Upon one of these hills, rising out of this mountain pass-way, 
very distinct lines of earthworks are yet apparent. Near the 
residence of Mr. Sidney E. Van Wyck, by the large black- wal- 
nut trees, and east of the road near the base of the mountain, 
was the soldiers' burial ground. Many a poor patriot soldier's 
bones lie mouldering there ; and if we did but know how many, 
we would be startled at the number, for this almost unknown 
and unnoticed burial ground holds not a few, but hundreds of 
those who gave their lives for the cause of American Independ- 
ence. Some fifteen years ago, an old lady who had lived near 
the village until after she had grown to womanhood, told the 
writer that after the battle of White Plains she went with her 
father through the streets of Fishkill, and in places between the 
Dutch and Episcopal Churches, the dead were piled up like cord- 
wood. Those who died from wounds in battle or from sickness 
in hospital were buried there. Many of these were State militia- 
men, and it seems no more than just that the State should make 
an appropriation to erect a suitable monument over this spot. 
Rather than thus remain for another century, if a rough granite 
boulder were rolled down from the mountain side and inscribed : 
" To the unknown and unnumbered dead of the American Revo- 
lution," that rough unhewn stone would tell to the stranger and 
the passer-by, more to the praise and fame of our native town, 
than any of us shall be able to add to it by works of our own; 
for it is doubtful whether any spot in the State has as many 6f 



152 THE HUDSON. 

the buried dead of the Revolution as this quiet burial yard in 
our old town ! " Here also on June 2d, 1883, was observed " The 
Fishkill Centennial " with addresses by Hon. Theodoric R. West- 
brook, J. Hervey Cook, and Hon. James G. Graham ; and few 
of our Centennials have been celebrated amid objects of greater 
Revolutionary interest. Near at hand, to quote from the official 
report of the proceedings, is " Denning's Point where Washing- 
ton frequently, while waiting, tied his horses under those mag- 
nificent ' Washington oaks,' as he passed backward and forward 
from New Windsor and Newburgh to Fishkill. Near by is the 
Verplanck House, Baron Steuben's old headquarters. On Spy 
Hill and Continental Hill troops were quartered. At Mattea- 
wan Sackett lived, and there is the Teller House built by 
Madame Brett, where officers frequently resorted, and there 
Yates dwelt when he presided over the Legislative body while 
it held its sessions in Fishkill, that had much to do with forming 
our first State Constitution. Baron Steuben was for a while in 
the old Scofield house at Glenham. In Fishkill are those re- 
nowned old churches where Legislative sittings were held, 
which were also used as hospitals for the sick, and one of which 
is otherwise known as being the place where Enoch Crosby, the 
spy, was imprisoned, and from which he escaped. Near at 
hand the Wharton House, (Van Wyck House) forever associated 
with him, and made famous by Cooper's ' Spy.' In the Brincker- 
hoff House above, Lafayette was dangerously ill with a fever, 
and there at Swartwoutville Washington was often a visitor. 
Whenever Washington was at Fishkill he made Col. Brincker- 
hoff's his headquarters. He occupied the bedroom back of the 
parlor, which remains the same ' excepting a door that opens 



THE HUDSON. 153 

into the hall, which has been cut through.' It is an old- 
fashioned house built of stone, with the date 1738 on one of its 
gables." With the story of Fishkill we close the largest page 
relating to our Revolutionary heroes, and leave behind us the 
Old Beacon Mountains which forever sentinel and proclaim their 
glory. 

Low Point, or Carthage, is a small village on the east bank, 
about four miles north of Fishkill. It was called by the early 
inhabitants Low Point, as New Hamburgh, two miles north, 
was called High Point. Opposite Carthage is Roseton, once 
known as Middlehope, and above this we see the residence of 
Bancroft Davis and the Armstrong Mansion. We now behold 
on the west bank a large flat rock, covered with cedars, recently 
marked by a light-house, the — 

Duyvel's Dans Rammer,- Here Hendrich Hudson, in his 
voyage up the river, witnessed an Indian pow-wow — the first re- 
corded fire-works in a country winch has since delighted in rock- 
ets and pyrotechnic displays. Here, too, in later years, tradi- 
tion relates the sad fate of a wedding party. It seems that a 
Mr. Hans Hansen and a Miss Kathrina Van Voorman, with a 
few friends, were returning from Albany, and disregarding the 
old Indian prophecy, were all slain : — 

" For none that visit the Indian's den 
Return again to the haunts of men. 
The knife is their doom ! O sad is their lot ! 
Beware, beware of the blood-stained spot I " 

Some years ago this spot was also searched for the buried 
treasures of Captain Kidd, and we know of one river pilot who 
still dreams semi-yearly of there finding countless chests of gold. 



154 THE HUDSON. 

Two miles above, on the east side, we pass New Hamburgh, at 
the mouth of Wappingers Creek. The name Wappinger had its 
origin from Wabun, east, and Acki, land. This tribe, a sub-tribe 
of the Mahicans, held the east bank of the river, from Manhattan 
to Roeliffe Jansen's Creek, which empties into the Hudson near 
Livingston, a few miles south of Catskill Station on the Hudson 
River Railroad. Passing Hampton Point we see Marlborough, 
the head -centre of a large fruit industry, delightfully located in 
the sheltered pass of the Maunekill. On the east bank will be 
noticed several fine residences: S. W. Johnson's "Uplands," J. 
F. Sheaf's "High Cliff," Dr. J. Lenox Bank's "Cedars," and 
Irving Grinnell's " Netherwood." Milton is now at hand on the 
west bank, with its cozy landing and West Shore Railroad station. 
This pleasant village was one of the loved spots of J. G. Hol- 
land, and the home of Mary Hallock Foote, until a modern 
"Hiawatha " took our Hudson " Minnehaha " to far away west- 
ern mountains, but millions of readers are still made happy 
alike by her pen and pencil. 

Locust Grove, residence of the late Prof. S. F. B. Morse, in- 
ventor of the telegraph, is seen on the west bank; also the 
" Lookout," once known as Mine Hill, now a part of Poughkeepsie 
Cemetery, with charming drive-way to the wooded point, where 
the visitor can see from his carriage one of the finest views of the 
Hudson. The completion of this drive is largely due to the enter- 
prise of the late Mr. George Corlies, who did much during the last 
fifty years to make Poughkeepsie beautiful. The view from this 
Lookout takes in the river for ten miles to the south, and 
reaches on the north to the Catskills. In a recent ramble with 
Mr. Corlies over Lookout Point, he told the writer that it was 



THE HUDSON. 



155 



originally the purpose of Matthew Vassar to erect a monument 
on Pollopel's Island to Hendrich Hudson. Mr. Corlies suggested 
this point as the most commanding site. Mr. Vassar visited it, 
and concluded to place the monument here. He published an 
article in the Poughkeepsie papers to this effect, and, meeting 
Mr. Corlies one week afterwards, said, "Not one person in the 
city of Poughkeepsie has referred to my monument. I have 




MORNING VIEW AT BLUE POINT. 

decided to build a College for Women, where they can learn 
what is useful, practical and sensible." It is interesting to note 
the fountain-idea of the first woman's college in the world, as it 
took form and shape in the mind of its founder. 

We now see Blue Point, on the west bank ; and, in every 
direction, enjoy the finest views. The scenery seems to stand, 
in character, between the sublimity of the Highlands and the 
tranquil dreamy repose of the Tappan Zee. It is said that under 
the shadow of these hills was the favorite anchorage of — 



156 THE HUDSON. 

The Storm Ship, one of our oldest and most reliable legends. 
The story runs somewhat as follows : Years ago, when New 
York was a village — a mere cluster of houses on the point now 
known as the Battery — when the Bowery was the farm of Peter 
Stuyvesant, and the Old Dutch Church on Nassau Street (which 
also long since disappeared, was considered the country — when 
communication with the old world was semi-yearly instead of 
semi-weekly or daily — say two hundred years ago — the whole 
town one evening was put into great commotion by the fact 
that a ship was coming up the bay. She approached the Bat- 
tery within hailing distance, and then, sailing against both 
wind and tide, turned aside and passed up the Hudson. Week 
after week and month after month elapsed, but she never re- 
turned ; and whenever a storm came down on Haverstraw Bay 
or Tappan Zee, it is said that she could be seen careening over 
the waste ; and, in the midst of the turmoil, you could hear the 
captain giving orders, in good Low Dutch ; but when the weather 
was pleasant, her favorite anchorage was among the shadows 
of the picturesque hills, on the eastern bank, a few miles above 
the Highlands. It was thought by some to be Hendrich Hud- 
son and his crew of the "Half Moon," who, it was well known, 
had once run aground in the upper part of the river, seeking a 
northwest passage to China ; and people who live in this vicinity 
still insist that under the calm harvest moon and the pleasant 
nights of September, they see her under the bluff of Blue Point, 
all in deep shadow, save her topsails glittering in the moonlight. 
Perhaps it was this quiet anchorage that gave the name to 

Poughkeepsie, (seventy-four miles from New York, popula- 
tion 23,196), Queen City of the Hudson, whose name, derived 



THE HUDSON. 157 

from the Indian word Apokeepsing, signifies safe harbor. Near 
the landing - a bold headland juts out into the river, known as 
Kaal Rock, (signifying barren, or as old-time residents say be- 
cause sailing vessels used to be "hailed" here, in early days 
by patient travelers,) and no doubt this sheltering rock was 
a safe harbor or landing place in days of birch canoes. It is 
said that there are over forty different ways of spelling Pough- 
keepsie, and every year the Post-Office record gives a new 
one. The first house was built in 1702 by a Mr. Van Kleeck. 
The State Legislature had a session here in 1777 or 1778, when 
New York was held by the British and after Kingston had been 
burned by Vaughan. Ten years later, the State Convention also 
met here for ratification of the Federal Constitution. The town 
has a beautiful location, and is justly regarded the finest resi- 
dence city on the river. It is not only midway between New 
York and Albany, but also midway between the Highlands and 
the Catskills, commanding a view of the mountain portals on 
the south and the mountain overlook on the north — the Gibraltar 
of Revolutionary fame and the dreamland of Rip Van Winkle. 

The well known poet and litterateur, Joel Benton, who divides 
his residence between New York and Poughkeepsie, in a recent 
article, "The Midway City of the Hudson," written for the 
Poughkeepsie Sunday Courier, says : 

"Poughkeepsie as a township was incorporated in 1788. The 
village bearing the name was formed in 1799, (incorporated 
as a city in 1854), and soon became the center of a large trade 
running in long lines east and west from the river. Dutchess 
county had at this time but a sparse population. There was a 
post-road from New York to Albany ; but the building of the 



158 THE HUDSON. 

Dutchess Turnpike from Poughkeepsie to Sharon, Corfh., con- 
necting with one from that place to Litchfield, which took place 
in 1808, was a capital event in its history. This made a con- 
siderable strip of western Connecticut tributary to Poughkeep- 
sie's trade. 

" Over the turnpike went four-horse Concord stages, with be- 
railed top and slanting boot in the rear for trunks and other 
baggage. Each one had the tin horn of the driver ; and it was 
difficult to tell upon which the driver most prided himself — the 
power to fill that thrilling instrument, or his deft handling of the 
ponderous whip and multiplied reins. Travelers to Hartford 
and Boston went over this route ; and an east and west through 
and way mail was a part of the burden. A sort of overland ex- 
press and freight line, styled the Market Wagon, ran in and out 
of the town from several directions. One or more of these con- 
veyances started from as far east as the Housatonic River, and 
they frequently crowded passengers in amongst their motley 
wares. 

" Speaking of the stage-driver's horn recalls the fact that 
when the steamboat arrived — which was so solitary an institution 
that for some time it was distinctly called ' The Steamboat ' — 
the tin horn did duty also for it. When it was seen in the dis- 
tance, either Albanyward or in the New York direction, a boy 
went through the village blowing a horn to arouse those who 
wished to embark on it. It is said the expectant passengers had 
ample time, after the horn was sounded, to make their toilets, 
run down to the river (or walk down) and take passage on it. 

; 'In colonial days few were the people here ; but they were a 
bright and stirring handful. It seems as if every man counted 



THE HUDSON. 159 

as ten. The De's and the Vans, the Livingstons, the Schuylers, 
the Montgomerys and ever so many more of the Hudson River 
Valley settlers are still making - their impress upon the country. 
I suppose it need not now be counted strange that the strong 
mixture of Dutch and English settlers, with a few Huguenots, 
which finally made Dutchess county, were not a little divided 
between Tory and Whig inclinations. Around Poughkeepsie, 
and in its allied towns stretching between the Hudson River and 
the Connecticut line, there was much strife. Gov. George Clin- 
ton in his day ruled in the midst of much tumult and turbulence ; 
but he held the reins with vigor, in spite of kidnappers or 
critics. When the British burned Kingston he prorogued the 
Legislature to Poughkeepsie, which still served as a 'safe 
harbor.' As the revolution progressed the Tory faction was 
weakened, either by suppression or surrender. 

"It was in the Poughkeepsie Court House that, by one vote, 
after a Homeric battle, the colony of New York consented to be- 
come a part of the American republic, which consent was practi- 
cally necessary to its existence. How large a part two small inci- 
dents played here towards the result of nationality. That single 
vote was one, and the news by express from Richmond, announc- 
ing Virginia's previous ratification — and added stimulus to the 
vote — was the other. Poughkeepsie honored in May, 1824, the 
arrival of Lafayette, and dined him, besides exchanging speeches 
with him, both at the Forbus House, on Market street, very 
nearly where the Nelson House now stands, and at the Pough- 
keepsie Hotel. It was one of Poughkeepsie's great days when 
he came. Daniel Webster has spoken in her Court House ; and 
Henry Clay, in 1844, when a presidential candidate, stopped for 



160 THE HUDSON. 

a reception. And it is said that, by a mere accident, she just 
missed contributing a name to the list of Presidents of the 
United States. The omitted candidate was Nathaniel P. Tal- 
madge. He could have had the vice-presidential candidacy, the 
story goes, in 1840, but would not take it. If he had accepted it, 
he would have gone into history not merely as United States 
senator from New York and afterwards governor of Wisconsin 
territory, but as president in John Tyler's place. 

"In 1844, the New York State Fair was held here somewhere 
east of what is now Hooker avenue. It was an occasion thought 
important enough then to be pictured and reported in the Lon- 
don Illustrated News. Two years after the telegraph wires were 
put up in this city, before they had yet reached the city of New 
York. Considering the fact that Prof. S. F. B. Morse, the tele- 
graph inventor, had his residence here, this incident was not 
wholly inappropriate. 

" The advent in 1849 of the Hudson River Railroad, which was 
an enterprise in its day of startling courage and magnitude, 
constituted a special epoch in the history of Poughkeepsie and the 
Hudson river towns. Men of middle age here well remember 
the hostility and ridicule the project occasioned when it was 
first broached. Some said no railroad ever could be built on the 
river's edge ; and, if you should build one, the enormous expense 
incurred would make it forever unprofitable. It seemed then 
the height of Quixotism to lay an expensive track where the 
river offered a free way to all. Property holders, whose prop- 
erty was to be greatly benefited, fought the railroad company 
with unusual spirit and persistence. But the railroad came, 
nevertheless, and needs no advocate or apologist to-day. There 



THE HUDSON. 161 

is no one now living- here who would ask its removal, any more 
than he would ask the removal of the Hudson River itself." 

Poughkeepsie has been known for more than half a century 
as the City of Schools. The Parthenon-like structure which 
crowns College Hill was prophetic of a still grander and more 
widely known institution, the first in the world devoted to 
higher culture for women, — 

Vassar College. This institution, founded by Matthew 
Vassar, and situated two miles east of the city, consists of a 
main building five hundred feet long, much after the style of 
the Tuilleries, with Chapel, Library, Drawing Room, Parlor, 
Offices, etc. Grouped about this and surrounded by beautiful 
grounds are the Museum, Observatory, Alumnas Gymnasium, 
Laboratory, etc. The College has a quiet and charming loca- 
tion, crowned by hills 372 feet in height, but is not seen from 
the river. It is reached by one of the favorite drive-ways of 
Poughkeepsie, and is also of easy access by an electric-car line, 
part of an extensive system reaching to Wappingers Falls, and 
embracing several pleasant beautiful villages of the vicinage. 

Eastman College is also one of the fixed and solid institu- 
tions of Poughkeepsie, located in the very heart of the city. It 
has accomplished good work in preparing young men for busi- 
ness, and has made Poughkeepsie a familiar word in every 
household throughout the land. It was fortunate for the city 
that the energetic founder of this college selected the central 
point of the Hudson as the place of all others most suited for his 
enterprise, and equally fortunate for the thousand of young men 
who yearly graduate from this institution, as the city is charm- 
ingly located and set like a picture amid picturesque scenery. 



162 THE HUDSON, 

Every department of the College is thoroughly organized, and 
the course of training forms a good supplement to every young 
man's education. Eastman Park, always open to the public, is 
a beautiful feature of the city, lying on a plateau just below 
Garfield Place. The hospitable home and fairy garden of the 
Eastman Place are known far and wide. West of Eastman Park 
is the 

Riverview Military Academy, founded by a noble 
scholar. It commands a beautiful eminence, overlooking the 
Hudson, and is readily seen from the deck of the steamer. The 
grounds occupy about six acres, bordered with hundreds of forest 
trees of every variety. The windows command a grand view of 
many miles of river and forest, from the Catskills to the High- 
lands. Fifty years ago, on the 15th of June, 1836, the Pough- 
keepsie Collegiate School received its charter as one of the 
legally authorized institutions of the State of New York. It was 
established on College hill, 1836, but by change of locality— more 
convenient in every particular from College hill to Riverview — 
it became Riverview Academy. On June 15th, 1886, in connec- 
tion with the closing exercises of the year the 50th anniversary 
of the school was celebrated. Boys are thoroughly fitted for 
college, the scientific school, and business. Candidates from 
Riverview have recently passed unconditionally at Harvard, 
Yale, Princeton, Williams, Bowdoin, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, Sheffield Scientific School, and Worcester Free In- 
stitute. Many young men who have not gone to college, but 
who now hold good business positions in various parts of the 
country, will gladly bear testimony to the thoroughness and 
helpfulness of their work at Riverview. 



THE HUDSON. 163 

Among- many successful public institutions of Poughkeepsie 
are the Vassar Hospital, the Vassar Old Men's Home, the Old 
Ladies' Home, the Public Library and the Vassar Institute of 
Arts and Sciences. The best known of its clubs are the Amrita, 
the Dutchess and the Bicycle. The Opera House is one of the 
pleasantest in the country and received a high comment from 
Joseph Jefferson for its perfect acoustic quality. A new Armory 
also claims the attention of the visitor. Several factories are 
here located, the best known being- the Adriance, Piatt & Co. 
Buckeye Mower and Reaper establishment. This firm com- 
menced the manufacture and sale of the Buckeye Mower, at 
Poug-hkeepsie, with salesrooms in New York in 1857 and 1858. 
Their continually increasing business shows the great excellence 
of their work and they have attained such skill in manufacturing 
that their reputation is world-wide. It would be safe to say that 
three-fourths of the meadows in the River Valley, and in many a 
valley far remote, are cropped by the steel-shuttled knives of the 
Buckeye. They have been awarded the highest honors in Ger- 
many, Holland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Rus- 
sia, Switzerland and the United States, and are now sold in 
every part of the civilized globe. The Phoenix Horseshoe 
Company, Fallkill Knitting-Goods Establishment, various Shoe, 
Shirt, and Silk Thread Factories contribute to the material 
prosperity of the town. The drives about Poughkeepsie are 
delightful. Perhaps the best known in the United States is the 
Hyde Park road, six miles in extent, with many palatial homes 
and charming pictures of park and river scenery. This is a 
part of the old Post Road and reminds one by its perfect finish 



164 THE HUDSON. 

of the roadways of England. Returning one can take a road to 
the left leading by and up to 

College Hill, 365 feet in height, commanding a wide and 
extensive prospect. The city lies below us, fully embowered 
as in a wooded park. To the east the vision extends to the 
mountain boundaries of Dutchess County, and to the north we 
have a view of the Catskills marshalled as we have seen them a 
thousand times in sunset beauty along the horizon. This prop- 
erty, for a long time owned by Senator Morgan and his heirs, 
has been recently purchased by William Smith of Poughkeepsie, 
and given to the city as a public park. There is ample oppor- 
tunity here to make this a thing of wondrous beauty and a joy 
forever, for there are few views on the Hudson, and none from 
any hill of its height, that surpass it in extent and beauty. The 
City Reservoir lies to the north, about one hundred feet down 
the slope of College Hill. 

The South Drive, also a part of the Post Road, passes the 
gateway of the beautiful Rural Cemetery, Locust Grove and 
many delightful homes. The drive to and through the grounds 
of Irving Grinnell are especially pleasant. The village of Wap- 
pingers Falls may be visited on the return journey, also New 
Hackensack, reaching Poughkeepsie by the Vassar College 
road, or past the entrance to the well-known Poughkeepsie 
Driving Park. Another interesting drive from Poughkeepsie 
is to Lake Mohonk and Minnewaska, well-known resorts across 
the Hudson, in the heart of the Shawangunk ( pronounced 
Shongum) Mountains, also reached by railway or stages via 
New Platz. The graceful little steamer, christened "Queen 
City," also suggests a pleasant way for a party to spend the day 



THE HUDSON. 165 

visiting- points up or down the river, picnicing here and there 
along the shore. There are also many extended drives to the 
interior of the county recommended to the traveler who makes 
Poughkeepsie for a time his central point ; chief among these. 
Chestnut Ridge, formerly the home of the historian Benson J. 
Lossing, lying amid the hill country of eastern Dutchess. Its 
mean altitude is about 1100 feet above tide water, a fragment of 
the Blue Ridge branch of the Appalachian chain of mountains, 
cleft by the Hudson at West Point, stretching away to the 
Berkshire Hills. It is also easy of access by the Harlem Rail- 
road from New York to Dover Plains with three miles of car- 
riage drive from that point. The outlook from the ridge is 
magnificent ; a sweep of eighty miles from the Highlands to 
the Helderbergs, with the entire range of the Shawangunk and 
the Catskills. Mr. Lossing once said that his family of nine 
persons had required during sixteen years residence on Chest- 
nut Ridge, only ten dollars' worth of medical attendance. Pre- 
vious to 1868 he had resided in Poughkeepsie, and throughout 
his life his form was a familiar one in her streets. 

The Dover Stone Church, just west of Dover Plains vil- 
lage, is also well worth a visit. Here a small stream has worn 
out a remarkable cavern in the rocks forming a gothic arch for 
entrance. It lies in a wooded gorge within easy walk from the 
village. Many years ago the writer of this hand-book paid it an 
afternoon visit, and the picture has remained impressed with 
wonderful vividness. The archway opens into a solid rock, and 
a stream of water issues from the threshold. On entering the 
visitor is confronted by an old-fashioned New England pulpit 
reaching half way to the ceiling. The walls are "almost per- 



366 THE HUDSON. 

fectly arched, and garnished here and there with green moss 
and white lichen. A rift in the rocks extends the whole length 
of the chapel, over which trees hang their green foliage, which, 
ever rustling and trembling, form a trellis-work with the blue sky, 
while the spray rising from behind the rock- worn altar seems 
like the sprinkling of holy incense. After all these years I still 
hear the voice of those dashing waters and dream again, as I did 
that day, of the brook of Cherith where ravens fed the prophet 
of old. It is said by Lossing, in his booklet on the Dover Stone 
Church, that Sacassas, the mighty sachem of the Pequoids and 
emperor over many tribes between the Thames and the Hudson 
River, was compelled after a disastrous battle which annihilated 
his warriors, to fly for safety, and, driven from point to point, 
he at last found refuge in this cave, where undiscovered he sub- 
sisted for a few days on berries, until at last he made his way 
through the territory of his enemies, the Mahicans, to the land 
of the Mohawks. 



THE HUDSON. 187 



FROM POUGHKEEPSIE TO RHINECLIFF. 

Leaving the Poughkeepsie dock the steamer approaches the 
Poughkeepsie Bridge which, from Blue Point and miles be- 
low, has seemed to the traveler like a delicate bit of lace- 
work athwart the landscape, or like an old fashioned "valance" 
which used to hang from Dutch bedsteads in the Hudson river 
farm houses. This great cantilever structure, the pet scheme 
of the late President Eastman, was begun in 1873 but abandoned 
for several years. The work was resumed in 1886 just in time 
to save the charter, and was finished by the Union Bridge Com- 
pany in less than three years. The bridge is 12,608 feet in 
length (or about two miles and a half), the track being 212 feet 
above the water with 165 feet clear above the tide in the centre 
span. The breadth of the river at this point is 3,094 feet. The 
bridge cost over three million dollars and is now controlled by 
a company which manages it in the interest of the Philadelphia 
and Beading Railroad. It not only affords a delightful passen- 
ger route between Philadelphia and Boston, but also brings the 
coal centres of Pennsylvania to the very threshold of New 
England. Two railroads from the east centre here, and what 
was once considered an idle dream, although bringing personal 
loss to many stockholders, has been of material prosperity to 
Poughkeepsie. It hardly seems twenty years ago since the 
writer copied in one of his early Guide Books the following from 
President Eastman's enthusiastic prospectus : 

"The Hudson River is one of the great natural boundaries 
dividing the United States into two grand divisions or sections. 



168 THE HUDSON. 

The New England States, east of the Hudson, including New- 
York City, contain one-seventh of the whole population of the 
United States, and control more than one-half the manufacturing 
of tJie nation. These States are the most active and wealthy, 
and their business interests and capital are nearly equal to those 
of all the rest of the Union. The great crossing places on the 
Hudson, over which now pass all the mighty streams of trade 
and travel between this great section of country and the wider 
and more rapidly growing West, are but two : one at Albany and 
Troy, the other at New York." 

The route to Hartford, crossing the Harlem and the Housa- 
tonic Railroads, is picturesque and delightful. As the steamer 
passes under the bridge the traveler will see on the left High- 
land Station ( West Shore Railroad) and above this the old land- 
ing of New Paltz. A well traveled road winds from the ferry 
and the station, up a narrow defile by the side of a dashing 
stream, broken here and there in waterfalls, on to Highland 
Village, New Paltz and Lake Mohonk. Chestnut Grove, crown- 
ing a bluff near the western terminus of the bridge, was for 
many years a favorite picnic ground, and near at hand is the 
Highland Station of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. 

Above Poughkeepsie are many pleasant residences ; promi- 
nent among them F. J. Allen's, proprietor of the Astor House, 
New York, the late John F. Winslow's, Mrs. Thomas Newbold's, 
J. Roosevelt's and Archie Rogers'. The large red buildings 
above the Poughkeepsie Water Works are the Hudson River 
State Hospital. Passing Crum Elbow point on the left and the 
Sisters of the White Cross Orphan Asylum, we see 



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THE HUDSON. 171 

Hyde Park, ( 80 miles from New York, ) on the east bank, 
named some say, in honor of Lady Ann Hyde ; according to 
others, after Sir Edward Hyde, one of the early British Gover- 
nors of the colony. The village lies on a bluff one mile from the 
river. The first prominent place above Hyde Park, Greek in 
style, is the residence of Walter Langdon ; above this a villa of 
the Italian order, known as Drayton Hall. Then " Gros Bois," 
owned now by Robert T. Lord, formerly " Placentia," the home 
of James K. Paulding. What a commentary on literary fame 
and ambition! Even the name of his house changed! Has it 
come to this that Paulding is only to be remembered as a friend 
of Washington Irving ? or as a mere associate in writing some 
of his early essays ? And that too, when a few years ago he 
was regarded the most popular story-teller of his day, the author 
of " The Dutchman's Fireside," and thirty or forty other novels 
whose very names have now passed from the memory of his 
friends and neighbors. 

Immediately opposite " Placentia," at West Park on the west 
bank, is the cottage of John Burroughs, our sweetest essayist, 
the nineteenth century's " White of Selborne." Judge Barnard 
of Poughkeepsie once said to the author of this hand-book, " The 
best writer America has produced after Hawthorne is John Bur- 
roughs ; I wish I could see him." It so happened that there had 
been an important " bank " suit a day or two previous in Pough- 
keepsie which was tried before the Judge in which Mr. Bur- 
roughs had appeared as a witness. The Judge was reminded of 
this fact when he remarked with a few emphatic words, the ab- 
sence of which seems to materially weaken the sentence: " Was 
that Burroughs ? Well, well, I wish I had known it." 



172 THE HUDSON. 

Mount Hymettus, overlooking- West Park, and so named by 
"the author and naturalist," as it has been to him a successful 
hunting-ground for bees and wild honey, has its front door- 
yard, as one might say, sloping down to the river well stocked 
with vines and fruit trees, and it will be long remembered for 
sweeter stores of honey encombed and presented in living type. 
Washington Irving says of the early poets of Britain that "a 
spray could not tremble in the breeze, or a leaf rustle to the 
ground, that was not seen by these delicate observers and 
wrought up into some beautiful morality." So John Burroughs 
has studied the Hudson in all its moods, knowing- well that it is 
not to be wooed and won in a single day. How clearly this is 
seen in his article on "Our River," published in Scribner's 
Magazine (August, 1880). 

' ' Rivers are as various in their forms as forest trees. The 
Mississippi is like an oak with enormous branches. What a 
branch is the Red River, the Arkansas, the Ohio, the Missouri ! 
The Hudson is like the pine or poplar — mainly trunk. From 
New York to Albany there is only an inconsiderable limb or 
two, and but few gnarls and excrescences. Cut off the Rondout, 
the Esopus, the Catskill and two or three similar tributaries on 
the east side, and only some twigs remain. There are some 
crooked places, it is true, but, on the whole, the Hudson presents 
a fine, symmetrical shaft that would be hard to match in any 
river in the world. Among our own water-courses it stands 
preeminent. The Columbia— called by Major Winthrop the 
Achilles of rivers — is a more haughty and impetuous stream ; the 
Mississippi is, of course, vastly larger and longer ; the St. Law- 
rence would carry the Hudson as a trophy in his belt and hardly 



THE HUDSON. 173 

know the difference ; yet our river is doubtless the most beauti- 
ful of them all. It pleases like a mountain lake. It has all the 
sweetness and placidity that go with such bodies of water, on 
the one hand, and all their bold and rugged scenery on the 
other. In summer, a passage up or down its course in one of the 
day steamers is as near an idyl of travel as can be had, perhaps, 
anywhere in the world. Then its permanent and uniform vol- 
ume, its fullness and equipoise at all seasons, and its gently- 
flowing currents give it further the character of a lake, or of the 
sea itself. Of the Hudson it may be said that it is a very large 
river for its size,— that is for the quantity of water it discharges 
into the sea. Its water-shed is comparatively small— less, I 
think, than that of the Connecticut. It is a huge trough with a 
very slight incline, through which the current moves very 
slowly, and which would fill from the sea were its supplies from 
the mountains cut off. Its fall from Albany to the bay is only 
about five feet. Any object upon it, drifting with the current, 
progresses southward no more than eight miles in twenty-four 
hours. The ebb-tide will carry it about twelve miles and the 
flood set it back from seven to nine. A drop of water at Albany, 
therefore, will be nearly three weeks in reaching New York, 
though it will get pretty well pickled some days earlier. Some 
rivers by their volume and impetuosity penetrate the sea, but 
here the sea is the aggressor, and sometimes meets the mount- 
ain water nearly half way. This fact was illustrated a couple 
of years ago, when the basin of the Hudson was visited by one 
of the most severe droughts ever known in this part of the State. 
In the early winter after the river was frozen over above Pough- 
keepsie, it was discovered that immense numbers of fish were 



174 THE HUDSON. 

retreating- up stream before the slow encroachment of salt 
water. There was a general exodus of the finny tribes from the 
whole lower part of the river ; it was like the spring and fall 
migration of the birds, or the fleeing- of the population of a dis- 
trict before some approaching danger : vast swarms of cat-fish, 
white and yellow perch and striped bass were en route for the 
fresh water farther north. When the people along- shore made 
the discovery, they turned out as they do in the rural districts 
when the pigeons appear, and, with small gill-nets let down 
through holes in the ice, captured them in fabulous numbers. 
On the heels of the retreating perch and cat-fish came the deni- 
zens of the salt water, and codfish were taken ninety miles above 
New York. When the February thaw came and brought up 
the volume of fresh water again, the sea brine was beaten back, 
and the fish, what were left of them, resumed their old feeding- 
grounds. 

It is this character of the Hudson, this encroachment of the 
sea upon it, that led Professor Newberry to speak of it as a 
drowned river. We have heard of drowned lands, but here is a 
river overflowed and submerged in the same manner. It is 
quite certain, however, that this has not always been the char- 
acter of the Hudson. Its great trough bears evidence of having 
been worn to its present dimensions by much swifter and 
stronger currents than those that course through it now. 
Hence, Professor Newberry has recently advanced the bold and 
striking theory that in pre-glacial times this part of the conti- 
nent was several hundred feet higher than at present, and that 
the Hudson was then a very large and rapid stream, that drew 
its main supplies from the basin of the Great Lakes through an 



THE HUDSON. 175 

ancient river-bed that followed, pretty nearly, the line of the 
present Mohawk ; in other words, that the waters of the St. 
Lawrence once found an outlet through this channel debouching 
into the ocean from a broad, littoral plain, at a point eighty 
miles south-east of New York, where the sea now rolls 500 feet 
deep. According to the soundings of the coast survey, this an- 
cient bed of the Hudson is distinctly marked upon the ocean 
floor to the point indicated. To the gradual subsidence of this 
part of the continent, in connection with the great changes 
wrought by the huge glacier that crept down from the north 
during what is called the ice period, is owing the character and 
aspects of the Hudson as we see and know them. The Mohawk 
Valley was filled up by the drift, the Great Lakes scooped out, and 
an opening for their pent-up waters found through what is now 
the St. Lawrence. The trough of the Hudson was also partially 
filled and has remained so to the present day. There is, perhaps, 
no point in the river where the mud and clay are not from two 
to three times as deep as the water. That ancient and grander 
Hudson lies back of us several hundred thousand years — perhaps 
more, for a million years are but as one tick of the time-piece of 
the Lord ; yet even it was a juvenile compared with some of the 
rocks and mountains which the Hudson of to-day mirrors. The 
Highlands date from the earliest geological race — the primary ; 
the river — the old river — from the latest, the tertiary ; and 
what that difference means in terrestrial years hath not entered 
into the mind of man to conceive. Yet how the venerable 
mountains open their ranks for the stripling to pass through. 
Of course, the river did not force its way through this barrier, 
but has doubtless found an opening there of which it has availed 



176 THE HUDSON. 

itself, and which it has enlarged. In thinking of these things, 
one only has to allow time enough, and the most stupendous 
changes in the topography of the country are as easy and nat- 
ural as the going out or the coming in of spring or summer. 
According to the authority above referred to, that part of our 
coast that flanks the mouth of the Hudson is still sinking at the 
rate of a few inches per century, so that in the twinkling of a 
hundred thousand years or so, the sea will completely submerge 
the city of New York, the top of Trinity Church steeple alone 
standing above the flood. We who live so far inland, and sigh 
for the salt water, need only to have a little patience, and we 
shall wake up some fine morning and find the surf beating upon 
our door-steps." 

The Frothingham residence and Frothingham dock are south 
of the Burroughs cottage. General Butterfield's house imme- 
diately to the north. The old Astor place (once known as Wal- 
dorf) is also near at hand. In our Guide Book analysis of the 
Hudson published many years ago and still retained, we refer to 
the hills above and below Poughkeepsie as " The Picturesque." 
Any one walking or driving from Highland village to West 
Park will feel that this is a proper distinction. The Palisades are 
distinguished for " grandeur " which might be defined as " hori- 
zontal sublimity." The Highlands for " sublimity " which might 
be termed "perpendicular grandeur ;" the Catskills for " beauty," 
with their rounded form and ever changing hues, but the river 
scenery about Poughkeepsie abides in our memories as a series 
of bright and charming " pictures." North of General Butter- 
field's residence is Pelham, consisting of 1,200 acres belonging to 
Robert L. Pell, one of the largest fruit shippers in the world. 



THE HUDSON. 177 

Passing Esopus Island, which seems like a great stranded and 
petrified whale, along whose sides often cluster Lilliputian-like 
canoeists, we see Brown's Dock on the west bank at the mouth of 
Black Creek, rising within eight miles of Newburgh on the 
eastern slope of the Plattekill Mountains. Flowing through 
Black Pond, known by the Dutch settlers as the "Grote Binne- 
water," it cascades its way along the southern slope of the 
Shaupeneak Mountains to Esopus Village, a cross-road hamlet, 
and thence carries to the Hudson its waters dark-stained by 
companionship with trees of hemlock and cedar growth. The 
Pell property extends on the west bank to Pell's Dock, almost 
opposite the Staatsburgh ice-houses. Mrs. Livingston's resi- 
dence will now be seen on the east bank, and just above this the 
home of the late William B. Dinsmore on Dinsmore Point. 
Passing Vanderberg Cove, cut off from the river by the tracks of 
the New York Central Bailroad, we see the residence of Jacob 
Ruppert, and above this the Frinck mansion known as ' ' Winder- 
cliff e," formerly the property of E. R. Jones, and next beyond the 
house of Robert Suckly. Passing Ellerslie Dock we see " Ellers 
lie," the palatial summer home of Ex- Vice-President Levi P. 
Morton, an estate of six hundred acres, formerly owned by the 
Hon. William Kelly. Along the western bank extend the 
Esopus meadows, a low flat, covered by water, the southern end 
of which is marked by the Esopus light-house. To the west rises 
Hussey's mountain, about one thousand feet in height, from un- 
der whose eastern slope two little ponds, known as Binnewaters, 
send another stream to join Black Creek before it flows into the 
Hudson. Port Ewen on the west bank, with ice-houses and 
brick-yards, will be seen by steamer passengers below the mouth 
of Rondout Creek. The steamer is now nearing— 



178 THE HUDSON. 

Rliinecliff, 90 miles from New York. The village of Rhine- 
beck, two miles east of the landing (population 1,649), is not seen 
from the river. It was named, as some contend, by combining 
two words— Beekman and Rhine. Others say that the word 
beck means cliff, and the town was so named from the resem- 
blance of the cliffs to those of the Rhine. There are many de- 
lightful drives in and about Rhinebeck, " Ellerslie " being only 
about eight minutes by carriage from the landing. 

The Philadelphia & Beading Bhinebeck Branch meets the Hudson 
at Rhinecliff, and makes a pleasant and convenient tourist or 
business route between the Hudson and the Connecticut. It 
passes through a delightful country and thriving rural villages. 
Some of the views along the Roeliffe Jansen's Kill are unrivaled 
in quiet beauty. The railroad passes through Rhinebeck, Red 
Hook, Spring Lake, Ellerslie, Jackson Corners, Mount Ross, 
Gallatinville, Ancram, Copake, Boston Corners, and Mount 
Riga to State Line Junction, and gives a person a good idea of 
the counties of Dutchess and Columbia. At Boston Corners 
connection is made with the New York & Harlem Bailroad. 

From State Line Junction it passes through Ore Hill, Lake- 
ville, with its beautiful lake (an evening view of which is still 
hung in our memory gallery of sunset sketches), Salisbury, Cha- 
pinville, and Twin Lakes to Canaan, where the line crosses the 
Housatonic % Bailroad. This route, therefore, is the easiest and 
pleasantest for Housatonic visitors en route to the Catskills. 
From Canaan the road rises by easy grade to the summit, at an 
elevation of 1,400 feet, passing through the village of Norfolk, 
with its picturesque New England church crowning the village 
hill. 



THE HUDSON. 179 

From the summit we pass through the prosperous villages of 
West Winsted and Winsted ; through the picturesque valleys of 
New Hartford, Pine Meadow, Collinsville, and Canton to Sims- 
bury, a cultured village in charming rural setting. 

From Simsbury a run of half an hour takes the tourist through 
Hoskins, Tariffville, Scotland, Bloomfield, and Cottage Grove to 
Hartford, the prosperous and enterprising capital of Connecticut. 
At Hartford connections are made with the New York, New Ha- 
ven & Hartford Railroad, with New York & New England and 
Hartford & Connecticut Valley Railways ; at Simsbury, with New 
Haven & Northampton Railroad ; and at Winsted, with Naugatuck 
Railroad. Few routes present more varied or beautiful scenery. 

The City of Kingston (population 21,495). Rondout and 
the old city of Kingston gradually grew together until the bans 
were performed in 1878, and a "bow-knot" tied at the top of the 
hill in the shape of a City Hall, making them one corporation. 

The name Rondout had its derivation from a redoubt that 
was built on the banks of the creek. The creek took the name 
of Redoubt Kill, afterward Rundoubt, and at last Rondout. 
Kingston was once called Esopus. (The Indian name for the spot 
where the city now stands was At-kar-karton, the great plot or 
meadow on which they raised corn or beans.) 

Kingston was settled in 1614, and thrice destroyed by the In- 
dians before the Revolution. In 1777 the State Legislature met 
here and formed a constitution. In the fall of the same year, 
after the capture of Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton by 
the British, Vaughan landed at Rondout, marched to Kingston, 
and burned the town. While Kingston was burning, the in- 
habitants fled to Hurley, where a small force of Americans hung 



180 THE HUDSON. 

a messenger who was caught carrying dispatches from Clinton 
to Burgoyne. 

Rondout is the termination of the Delaware and Hudson Ca- 
nal (whence canal boats of coal find their way from the Pennsyl- 
vania mountains to tide- water), also of the Ulster and Delaware 
Railroad, by which people find their way from tide-water to 
the Catskill Mountains, which have greeted the eye of the 
tourist for many miles down the Hudson. Originally all of the 
country-side in this vicinity was known as Esopus, supposed to 
be derived, according to Ruttenber, from the Indian word 
" seepus," a river. A " sopus Indian " was a Lowlander, and the 
name is intimately connected with a long reach of territory 
from Esopus village, near West Park, to the mouth of the 
Esopus at Saugerties. In 1675 the mouth of the Rondout 
Creek was chosen by the New Netherland Company as one 
of the three fortified trading ports on the Hudson ; a stock- 
ade was built under the guidance of General Stuyvesant in 
1661 inclosing the site of old Kingston ; a charter was granted 
in 1658 under the name of Wiltwyck, but changed in 1679 to 
Kingston. Few cities are so well off for old-time houses that 
span the century, and there is no congregation probably in the 
United States that has worshipped so many consecutive years in 
the same spot as the Dutch Reformed people of Kingston. 
Five buildings have succeeded the log church of 240 years 
ago. Dr. Van Slyke, in a recent welcome, said : " This church, 
which opens her doors to you, claims a distinction which does 
not belong even to the Collegiate Dutch Churches of Manhattan 
Island, and, by a peculiar history, stands identified more closely 
with Holland than any other of the early churches of this country. 



THE HUDSON. 181 

When every other church of our communion had for a long- time 
been associated with an American Synod, this church retained 
its relations to the Classis of Amsterdam, and, after a period of 
independency and isolation, it finally allied itself with its Ameri- 
can sisterhood as late as the year 1808. We still have three or 
four members whose life began before that date." 

Dominie Blom was the first preacher in Kingston. The church 
where he preached and the congregation that gathered to hear, 
him have been tenderly referred to by the Rev. Dr. Belcher : 
" They've journeyed on from touch and tone ; 
No more their ears shall hear 
The war-whoop wild, or sad death moan, 

Or words of fervid prayer ; 
But the deeds they did and plans they planned, 

And paths of blood they trod, 
Have blessed and brightened all this land 
And hallowed it for God." 

The Senate House, built in 1676 by Wessel Ten Broeck, who 
would seem by his name to have stepped bodily out of a chapter 
of Knickerbocker, was "burned" but not "down," for its walls 
stood firm. It was afterwards repaired, and sheltered many 
dwellers, among- others, General Armstrong-, Secretary of War 
under President Madison. The Provincinal Convention met in 
the Court House at King-ston in 1777 and the Constitution was 
formally announced April 22d of that year. The first court was 
held here September 9th and the first legislature September 
10th. Adjourning- Oct. 7th they convened again August 18th, 
1779, and in 1780, from April 22d to July 2d, also for two 
months beginning January 27, 1783. 

It was in the yard in front of the Court House that the Con- 



182 THE HUDSON. 

stitution of the State was proclaimed by Robert Berrian, the 
secretary of the Constitutional convention, and it was there that 
George Clinton, the first governor of the State, was inaugurated 
and took the oath of office. It was in the Court House that John 
Jay, Chief Justice, delivered his memorable charge to the grand 
jury in September, 1777, and at the opening said : " Gentlemen, 
it affords me very sensible pleasure to congratulate you on the 
Hawn of that free, mild, and equal government which now be- 
gins to rise and break from amidst the clouds of anarchy, con- 
fusion and licentiousness, which the arbitrary and violent domi- 
nation of the King of Great Britain has spread, in greater or 
less degree, throughout this and other American states. And 
it gives me particular satisfaction to remark that the first fruits 
of our excellent constitution appear in a part of this State whose 
inhabitants have distinguished themselves by having unani- 
mously endeavored to deserve them." The Court House bell was 
originally imported from Holland. 

The burning of Kingston seemed unnecessarily cruel, and it 
is said that Vaughan was wide of the truth when, to justify 
the same, he claimed that he had been fired upon from dwellings 
in the village. General Sharpe in his admirable address before 
the Holland Society gives a happy summary of the history of 
Kingston : "The history of this county begins to be interesting 
at the earliest stages of American history. The Duke of York 
was Duke of Albany in Scotland and Earl of Ulster in Ire- 
land, and when, in after years, this town was divided, a Royal 
Governor named the portion which was cut off from it, because 
he was Baron Lovelace, of Hurley. I may add that the title of 
Lovelace, of Hurley, having become extinct, that of Lovelace 



THE HUDSON. 183 

was again created in 1838, in favor of William Lord King, who 
married Ada, the only child of George Gordon, Lord Byron. 
Visited by Dutchmen in 1614, and again in 1620, it was in the 
very earliest Colonial history, one of the strong places of the 
Province of New York. The British museum contains the re- 
port of the Rev. John Miller, written in the year 1695, who, 
after ' having been nearly three years resident in the Province 
of New York, in America, as Chaplain of His Majesty's forces 
there, and constantly attending the Governor, had opportunity 
of observing many things of considerable consequence in rela- 
tion to the Christians and Indians, and had also taken the drafts 
of all the cities, towns, forts and churches of any note within the 
same.' These are his own words, and he adds that in the 
Province of New York 'the places of strength are chiefly three, 
the City of New York, the City of Albany, and the Town of 
Kingstone, in Ulster.' I have copied the map of the stockade 
enclosure which made the fortified boundaries of the town. The 
east, north and west fronts ran along elevations overlooking the 
lowlands and having a varying altitude of from twenty to thirty 
feet. The enclosure comprehended about twenty-five acres of 
land. There were salients, or horn works at each end of the 
four angles, with a circular projection at the middle of the 
westerly side, where the elevation was less than upon the 
northerly and easterly sides. The Church standing upon tfcie 
ground where we now are was enclosed with a separate 
stockade, to be used as the last resort in case of disaster, and, 
projecting from this separate fortification, a strong block-house 
commanded and enfiladed the approaches to the southerly side, 
which was a plain. The local history is of continued and 



184 THE HUDSON. 

dramatic interest. The Indian wars were signalized by a 
great uprising and attack here, which was known as the war of 
1663, when a considerable number of the inhabitants were killed, 
a still larger number were taken prisoners, and about one-fourth 
of the houses were burned to the ground. Reinforcements were 
sent by the Governor General from New Amsterdam, followed 
by his personal presence, when the Indians were driven back to 
the mountains, and, after a tedious campaign, their fields 
destroyed and the prisoners recaptured. When the next great 
crisis in our history came Kingston bore a conspicuous part. It 
was the scene of the formation of the State Government. The 
Constitution was here discussed and adopted. George Clinton 
was called from the Highlands, where, as a Brigadier General 
of the Continental Army, he was commanding all the forces 
upon the Hudson River, which were opposing the attempts of 
Sir Henry Clinton to reach the northern part of the State and 
relieve Burgoyne, hemmed in by Gates at Saratoga. He was 
the ideal war Governor — unbuckling his sword in the Court 
Room, that he might take the oath of office, and returning, 
immediately after the simple form of his inauguration, to his 
command upon the Hudson River. 

"The Court House, standing opposite to us, and rebuilt upon 
its old foundations, and occupying, substantially, the same super- 
ficies of ground with its predecessors, recalls the dramatic 
scene where, surrounded by the Council of Safety, and in a 
square formed by two companies of soldiers, he was proclaimed 
Governor by Egbert Dumond, the Sheriff of the County, reading 
his proclamation from the top of a barrel, and closing it with 
the words 'God save the people,' for the first time taking the 



THE HUDSON. 185 

place of 'God save the King/ The only building- in any way 
connected with the civil foundation of this great State is still 
standing, and presents the same appearance that it did at the 
time of its erection, prior to the year 1690. It was subsequently 
occupied by General Armstrong, who, while residing here for 
the better education of his children, in Kingston Academy, was 
appointed Minister to France. Aaron Burr, then in attendance 
upon court, spent an evening with General Armstrong, at his 
house, and, having observed the merit of sundry sketches, made 
inquiry with regard to, and interested himself in the fate of, 
John Vanderlyn, who afterwards painted the Landing of Colum- 
bus in the Capitol, and Marius upon the Ruins of Carthage— 
which attracted the attention of the elder Napoleon, and estab- 
lished Vanderlyn's fame. There are more than forty blue lime- 
stone houses, of the general type found in Holland, still stand- 
ing to-day, which were built before the Revolutionary period, 
and many of them before the year 1700." 

Coal, cement and blue-stone are the prominent industries of 
the city. The cement works yield over two million dollars 
annually and employ about two thousand men. Over three 
million barrels are manufactured here, required for shipment 
of the same. Almost a million tons of coal enter the Hudson 
via the Port of Rondout from the Wyoming Valley of Pennsyl- 
vania. Blue-stone also meets tide-water at this point, brought 
in from quarries throughout the country by rail or by truck. 
The City of Kingston, the largest station on the West Slwre 
between Weehawken and Albany, has admirable railroad fa- 
cilities connecting with the Erie Hallway at Goshen via the Wall- 
kill Valky, and the Catskills via the Ulster & Delaware. All roads 



186 THE HUDSON. 

centre at the Union Station and the Ulster & Delaware connects 
with the ferry from the Day Line and the New York Central. 
This is also the starting- point of the " Mary Powell," the " Bald- 
win "and the " Romer," and a calling place for smaller steamers. 

To tlie Catskills. —The two principal routes to the Catskills 
are via Kingston and the Ulster & Delaware Railroad and via 
Catskill Landing, the Catskill Mountain Railway and the Otis 
Elevating Railway to the summit of the mountains. It has oc- 
curred to the writer to divide the mountain section in two parts 

The Southern Catskills.— Reaching the Rondout dock, we 
take the train in waiting for the mountain district. As we stand 
on the rear platform a friend points north to a bluff near King- 
ston Point and says the Indian name is " Ponckhockie " — Indian 
for burial-ground. The old redoubts of Kingston on the left 
were defenses used in early days against the Indians. 

After leaving Kingston the next station is Stony Hollow, eight 
miles from Rondout, and the traveler will note the stone tracks 
in the turnpike below on the right side of the car, used by 
quarry wagons. Crossing the Stony Hollow ravine, we reach 
West Hurley, nine miles from Rondout and 530 feet above the 
sea. 

The Overlook Mountain House, the most suggestive, and, 
to our minds, the most appropriately christened of any of the 
mountain hotels or peaks, is nine miles distant by stage from 
West Hurley. The Overlook stands like a sentinel or outpost of 
this mountain phalanx, and commands a wide and extensive 
view, embracing an area of 30,000 square miles, from the peaks 
of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of Vermont to the 
hills of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. To the east the valley 



THE HUDSON. 187 

reaches away with its towns and villages to the blue hills of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and, through this beautiful val- 
ley, the Hudson for a hundred miles is reduced to a mere ribbon 
of light. Its summit was, however, difficult of access, compared 
with other mountain resorts, and the hotel has been closed for 
several seasons. Passing through Olive Branch and Brown's 
Station we come to Brodhead's Bridge, 17 miles from Rondout. 
Bishop Falls are near this station. Passing through Shokan, 18 
miles from Rondout, the road takes a northerly course ; and 
we are advised by Mr. Van Loan's Guide — the best companion 
one can have as a hand-book to the Catskills — to notice on the 
left " a group of five mountains forming a crescent ; the peaks of 
these mountains are four miles distant ; " the right-hand one 
is the ''Wittenberg," and the next "Mount Cornell." Boice- 
ville and Mount Pleasant, 24 miles from Rondout, 700 feet above 
the Hudson, are next reached. We enter the beautiful Shanda- 
ken Valley, and three miles of charming mountain scenery 
bring us to — 

Phoenicia, 27 miles from Rondout. This is one of the cen- 
tral points of the Catskills which the mountain streams (Nature's 
engineers) indicated several thousand years ago. Readers of 
"Hiawatha" will remember that Gitche Manitou, the mighty, 
traced with his finger the way the streams and rivers should 
run. The tourist will be apt to think that he used his thumb in 
marking out the wild grandeur of Stony Clove. The Tremper 
House has a picturesque location in a charming valley, which 
seems to have been cut to fit, like a beautiful carpet, and tacked 
down to the edges of these grand old mountains. A fifteen 
minutes' walk up Mount Tremper gives a wide view, from which 



188 THE HUDSON. 

the Lake Mohonk House is seen forty miles away. Passing 
through Fox Hollow, thirty-two miles from Rondout, 990 feet 
above tide-water, we come to — 

Shandaken, named after an old chief of the Delawares. 
There is a remarkable butternut tree that the traveler will see 
shortly after leaving- Shandaken Station. We have Van Loan's 
authority that "It was 75 years old in 1878, and bore 75 bushels 
of butternuts." Three miles beyond Shandaken we come to a 
little station which reminds one of the plains. 

Big Indian. — It is said that about eighty or ninety years 
ago, a noble red man dwelt in these parts, who, early in life, 
turned his attention to agriculture instead of scalping, and lived 
in this valley, then a wilderness, respected by the community. 
He was said to have been about eight feet in height and very 
muscular. He was attacked one day by wolves, and slew a few 
of them, but was overpowered by numbers. He was buried by 
his brethren not far from the station, and a "big Indian" was 
carved out of a tree near by for his monument. An old and re- 
liable inhabitant told me that he remembered the rude statue 
well, and often thought that it ought to be saved for a relic, as 
the stream was washing away the roots ; but it was finally car- 
ried down by a freshet, and probably found its way to some fire- 
place in the Esopus valley. "So man passes away, as with a 
flood." The next station west of Big Indian is Pine Hill, 39 
miles from Rondout, with 1,660 feet elevation. The Guigou 
stream heads from springs about half a mile distant. Big In- 
dian stream is two miles below. Pine Hill is a good starting- 
point for Slide Mountain. 



THE HUDSON. 1*'.) 

The Summit, the highest point of the Ulster & Delaware 
Railroad, 1,886 feet above tide-water, forty-one miles from Ron- 
dout, is the station for the Grand Hotel, appropriately named, 
not only for its commanding- location but also for its architect- 
ural features and interior furnishing. From a long distance 
down the valley we see it, like a beautiful picture, framed by 
forest and woodland. The main building faces southwest and 
overlooks the hamlet of Pine Hill, down the Shandaken Valley 
to Big Indian. The mountains, "grouped like giant kings" 
in the distance, are Slide Mountain, Panther Mountain, Table 
and Balsam Mountains. Panther Mountain, directly over Big 
Indian Station, with Atlas-like shoulders, being nearer, seems 
higher, and is often mistaken for Slide Mountain. Table Mount- 
ain, to the right of the Slide, is the divide between the east 
branch of the Neversink and the Rondout. 

Continuing our journey from the summit we pass through 
Arkville, Halcottville, Roxbury and Grand Gorge to the "Gem 
of the Mountains," Stamford, 78 miles from Rondout. Here in 
this beautiful village, at the head-waters of the picturesque Dela- 
ware River, at an elevation of 1,800 feet, on the western slope of 
the Catskills, is Churchill Hall, well known to the public as one 
of the best resorts in the entire mountain region. The village 
of Stamford has been well styled the Saratoga of the Catskills. 
The climate is exhilarating, and a healthful and bracing atmos- 
phere at all times prevails. The Delaware & Otsego Bailroad has 
been recently built to Bloomville, 87 miles from Kingston, within 
easy drive of Delhi, the pleasant county seat of Delaware 
County. 
Through passengers to the Summit and Stamford probably 



190 



THE HUDSON. 



noticed that they lost a large delegation of tourists at Phoenicia. 
These were en route for Hunter, the Hotel Kaaterskill, Tanners- 
ville and other points via the Stony Clove & Catskill Mountain 
Hallway, with continuation from three miles below Hunter to the 
very door of the Hotel Kaaterskill. This undoubtedly is the 








BASTION FALLS, CATSKILL MOUNTAINS. 



grandest mountain hotel in the world. We will not, however, 
enter at the back door, but come in later by the front entrance 
en route from Catskill Landing*. The village of Hunter has 
grown with the popularity of the mountain region and can now 
accommodate more than two thousand visitors. Tannersville is 
another well-known resort five miles distant from Hunter and 



THE HUDSON. 191 

the station for Ontiora, Elka and Twilight Parks. The park 
system, being associations of cottagers, is growing rapidly in 
popularity and happily brings together people of kindred tastes. 
Another park, the Santa Cruz, shows there is still room among 
the great peaks, and its name might indicate that Rip Van 
Winkle was one of the original organizers. The Twilight, the 
Santa Cruz and Haines' Falls are all reached from Haines' 
Station. The next station en route is the Laurel House at 
Kaaterskill Falls, which at one time stood next to the Catskill 
Mountain House in mountain glory. 



1U2 THE HUDSON. 



RHINECLIFF TO CATSKILL. 

The old Beekman stone house, on the hill above Rhinebeck, 
was built before 1700 by William Beekman, first patroon of this 
section. It was used as a church and as a fort during the Indian 
struggles, and still preserves the honorable scar of a cannon ball 
from an English ship. Passing Ferncliff , on the east bank, form- 
erly the residence of William Astor, now the home of John 
Jacob Astor, we see " Clifton Point," once known as the Garret- 
son place, the noted Methodist preacher whose wife was sister of 
Chancellor Livingston, and above this Douglass Merritt's home 
known as "Leacote." Flatbush landing lies on the west bank, 
below which, opposite Ferncliff, are the residences of Allen 
Terry, D. S. Manchester, N. A. Nickerson and P. S. Gurney. 
Above Flatbush Landing, also on the west bank, is the home of 
Charles A. Shultz, the Brigham Cement Works and the resi- 
dences of C. O. Livingston, C. Coddington, and Dr. Shrady. On 
the east bank now appears F. H. Delano's, at Astor Point, Mrs. 
M. L. Marshall's "Rokeby," and " Edgewater,"' formerly the 
Donaldson home, now owned by E. C. Goodwin. Just above 
Daisy Island is the village of — 

Barrytown, on the east bank, 96 miles from New York. It 
is said when General Jackson was President, and this village 
wanted a post-office,- that he would not allow it under the name 
of Barrytown, from personal dislike to General Barry, and sug- 
gested another name ; but the people were loyal to their old 
friend, and went without a post-office until a new administration. 
The name of Barrytown, therefore, stands as a monument to 



THE HUDSON. j, ); j 

pluck. The place was once known as Lower Red Hook Landing 
Passing "Massena," the Aspinwall property, we see- 

Montgomery Place, residence of Carleton Hunt and sis- 
ters about one-half mile north o( Barrytown, formerly occupied 
by Mrs Montgomery, wife of General Montgomery and sister of 
Chancellor Livingston. The following dramatic incident con- 
nected with Montgomery Plaee is recorded in Stone's « History 
of New York City " : "In 1818 the Legislature of New York-De- 
Witt Clinton, Governor-Ordered the remains of General Mont- 
gomery to be removed from Canada to New York. This was in 
accordance with the wishes of the Continental Congress, which 
in 17-6, had voted the beautiful cenotaph to his memory that 
now stands in the wall of St. Paul's Church, fronting Broadway. 
When the funeral cortege reached Whitehall, N. Y, the fleet 
stationed there received them with appropriate honors ; and on 
the 4th of July they arrived in Albany. After lying i„ 8tate in 
that city over Sunday, the remains were taken to New York 
and on Wednesday deposited, with military honors, in their final' 
resting place, at St. Paul's. Governor Clinton had informed 
Mrs. Montgomery of the hour when the steamer 'Richmond ■ 
conveying the body, would pass her home. At herown request 
she stood alone on the portico. It was forty years since she had 
parted from her husband, to whom she had been wedded but two 
years when he fell on the heights of Quebec : yet she had re- 
mained faithful to the memory of her 'soldier,' as she always 
called him. The steamboat halted before the mansion; the 
band played the ' Dead March,' and a salute was fired : and the 
ashes of the venerated hero, and the departed husband, passed on. 
The attendants of the Spartan widow now appeared, but, over- 



194 THE HUDSON. 

come by the tender emotions of the moment, she had swooned 
and fallen to the floor." 

The Sawkill Creek flows through a beautiful ravine in 
Montgomery grounds and above this is the St. Stephen Semi- 
nary which prepares students for the ministry of the Episcopal 
Church. Beyond and above this are Mrs. E. Bartlett's home 
and Deveaux Park, afterwards Almonte, the property of Col. 
Charles Livingston. We are now approaching — 

Cruger's Island, with its indented South Bay reaching up 
toward the bluff crowned by Montgomery Place. There is an 
old Indian tradition that no person ever died on this island, 
which a resident recently said still held true. It is remarkable, 
moreover, in possessing many antique carved stones from a 
city of Central America built into the walls of a temple 
modeled after the building from which the graven stones were 
brought. The "ruin" at the south end of the island is barely 
seen from the steamer, hidden as it is by foliage, but it is dis- 
tinctly noted from the windows of the New York Central in the 
winter season. Col. Cruger has spared no expense in the adorn- 
ment of his grounds, and a beautiful drive is afforded the visitor. 
The island is connected by a roadway across a tongue of land 
which separates the North from the South Bay. Above the 
Island east of the steamer's channel across the track of the New 
1 York Central, we see a historic bit of water known as — 

The North Bay. It was here that Robert Fulton built the 
"Clermont," receiving pecuniary aid from Chancellor Living- 
ston. It was through his influence that Fulton secured from the 
State Legislature of New York the passage of an Act granting 
to himself the exclusive privilege of navigating the waters of 



THE HUDSON. 195 

the State by means of steam power. The only conditions im- 
posed were that he should, within a year, construct a boat of 
not less than twenty tons burthen, which should navigate the 
Hudson at a speed not less than four miles an hour, and that one 
such boat should not fail of running- regularly between New 
York and Albany for the space of one year. The Legislature 
probably intended that Fulton should run an ice-boat when the 
Hudson was frozen over, or else were sleepy when they passed 
the bill. It has been a mooted question for almost a hundred 
years as to whom should be accredited the invention of the steam- 
boat. An old newspaper cupping says : 

'The theory of steam navigation on the water had been 
evolved and considered for more than 200 years before it actually 
took shape. James Rumsey was engaged in experiments from 
1784 to 1786, when he tried a boat on the Potomac, which made 
four miles an hour, propelled by a jet of water forced from the 
stern. In the same year a paddle steamer was invented and 
built in Philadelphia, Pa., by John Pitch, of Windsor, Conn. 
After many disappointments and misfortunes in applying steam 
to the propulsion of vessels, Mr. Pitch finally triumphed over 
repeated failures. An engraving and description of the boat was 
prepared and published in the Columbian Magazine for Decem- 
ber, 1786. The propelling instruments used in Pitch's boat were 
paddles suspended by the upper ends of their shafts, and moved 
by cranks. His boat was sixty feet long and very lightly built. 
The second steamboat in the world was invented by Mr. Sym- 
ington, in Scotland. It was tried in 1788, but only partially 
succeeded." 

The third steamboat, and the only one up to that time that 



196 THE HUDSON. 

had attained practical success, was the ' ( Clermont " of Robert 
Fulton. It is a remarkable fact that the two most practical 
achievements of our century have been consummated by artists. 
a practical telegraph by Morse after a score of "invented" fail- 
ures, and the successful application of steam to navigation by 
Fulton. Fulton was born in 1765 and, at the time of Symington's 
experiment on Dalswinton Lock, Scotland, was twenty-three 
years of age. He was then an artist student of Benjamin West, 
in London, but after several years of study he felt that he was 
better adapted for engineering, and soon thereafter wrote a 
work on Canal Navigation. In 1797 he went to Paris. He re- 
sided there seven years and built a small steamboat on the 
Seine, which worked well, but made very slow progress. 

Soon after this he returned to New York and brought the 
" Clermont " to successful completion. His reputation was now 
assured, and his invention of "torpedoes" gave him additional 
fame Congress not only purchased these instruments of war- 
fare, but also set apart $320,000 for a steam frigate to be con- 
structed under his supervision. How necessary it is to succeed 
said Kossuth at Mount Vernon ! Perhaps it may never be known 
who first " thought out " the steamboat. It is, however, certain 
that Fulton succeeded in making the steamboat an accomplished 
fact. He would, however, wonder to-day if he could stand at the 
prow of one of these steamers when the water falls away, cut by 
a rainbow cimeter of spray. He would admire the dining-room 
on the main deck, as he took in the Palisades-and-Highlands-on- 
toast. He would marvel at the great engine of polished steel, 
working almost noiselessly, and wonder at the way the pilot 
lands at the docks, even as a driver brings his buggy to a horse- 



THE HUDSON. 197 

block; for in his day, and long- afterwards, passengers were 
" slued " ashore in little boats, as it was not thought safe to land 
a steamboat against a wharf. 

An original letter from Robert Fulton to the Minister of Bava- 
ria at the Court of France, written in 1809, is of much interest 
at the present day. It was upon the question of putting steam- 
boats on the Danube. Its commencement pertains to the 
success of Fulton's boat on the Hudson. In the letter 
Fulton says: "The distance from New York to Albany is 160 
miles ; the tide rises as far as Albany : its velocity is on an 
average 11 miles an hour. We thus have the tide half the time 
in favor of the boat and half the time against her. The boat is 
100 feet long, 16 feet wide and 7 feet deep ; the steam engine is 
of the power of 20 horses ; she runs 41 miles an hour in still 
water. Consequently when the tide is 11 miles an hour in her 
favor she runs of miles an hour. When the tide is against 
her she runs 21 miles an hour. Thus in theory her average 
velocity is 4i miles an hour, but in practice we take advantage 
of the currents. When they are against us we keep near shore 
in the eddies, where the current is weak or the eddy in our 
favor ; when the tide is in our favor we take the centre of the 
stream and draw every advantage from it. In this way our 
average speed is 5 miles an hour, and we run to Albany, 160 
miles, in about 32 hours. 

The boat has three elegant cabins, one for the ladies and two 
for the gentlemen, with kitchen, library, and every convenience, 
and averages 100 passengers up or down the river. Every 
passenger pays $7, or 42 francs, for which he has dinner, tea 
and bed, breakfast and dinner, with the liberty to carry 200 



198 THE HUDSON. 

pounds of baggage. Previous to the invention of the steamboat 
there were two modes of conveyance. One was by the common 
sloops ; they charged 42 francs ; and were on the average four 
days in making the passage — they have sometimes been as long 
as eight days. The dread of such tedious voyages prevented 
great numbers of persons from going in sloops. The second 
mode of conveyance was the mail, or stage. They charged $8, 
or 44 francs, and the expenses on the road were about $5, or 30 
francs, so that expenses amounted to $13. The time required 
was 48 hours. The steamboat has rendered the communication 
between New York and Albany so cheap and certain that the 
number of passengers are rapidly increasing. Persons who live 
150 miles beyond Albany know the hour she will leave that city, 
and making their calculations to arrive at York, stay two days 
to transact business, return with the boat, and are with their 
families in one week. The facility has rendered the boat a 
great favorite with the public. 

A telegram from Exeter, N. H., January 11th, 1886, said : Dr. 
William Perry, the oldest person in Exeter and the oldest grad- 
uate of Harvard College, died this morning at the age of ninety- 
eight years. He was the sole survivor of the passengers on 
Fulton's first steamboat on its first trip down the Hudson, seven- 
ty-nine years ago. He was born in Norton, Mass., in 1788, and 
was a member of 1811 in Harvard. Dr. Perry was one of the 
most successful and skillful physicians of his day in New Hamp- 
shire. He was grandfather of Sarah Orne Jewett, the authoress. 

Tivoli, (population 1,350), above North Bay took its name 
from a pre-revolutionary "Chateau," now owned by Col. J. L. 
DePeyster. The " Callender Pla,ce " to the south-east, now oc- 



THE HUDSON. 199 

cupied by Mrs. Kidd, was formerly the property of Johnston 
Livingston. Two miles from the river is the hospitable home 
of Mr. J. N. Lewis, a morning - view from whose veranda is still 
remembered, also the breakfast which preceded it, and it is to 
Mr. Lewis that the writer is indebted for a drive ten years ago 
to the ruins on Cruger's Island. The residence of J. Watts De- 
Peyster stands on a commanding bluff 'north of the railway 
station and it was beside his open fireside many years ago that 
he told the writer how his house was saved from Vaughan's trip 
up the river to burn the Livingston Manor House. Rose Hill, 
the home of his ancestors, was mistaken for "Clermont," but a 
well-stocked cellar mollified the British Captain. "Rose Hill', 
was named after the old Watts Mansion in Edinburgh, which 
has recently been removed to make room for a railway. 

Rose Hill projects so far out into the river that it is beyond 
the islands two miles below, which, at one time, were about in 
the centre of the wide expanse of water between the main 
shores. To give a better idea, however, of the projection, 
steamboats which pass down to the front have to sheer in so 
far in making their landing at Tivoli, a quarter of a mile below, 
that they disappear from the sight of those looking southward 
and watching them from the piazza of the mansion. Rose Hill 
itself has grown like one of the old English family houses, with 
the increase of the family, until, in strange but picturesque out- 
line — the prevailing style being Italian, somewhat in the shape 
of a cross — it is now 114 feet long by 87 feet deep. The tower in 
the rear, devoted to library purposes, rises to the height of 
about sixty feet. This library, first and last, has contained be- 
tween twenty and thirty thousand volumes. Such indefinite 



200 THE HUDSON. 

language is used, because the owner has donated over half this 
number to the New York Historical Society, the New York So- 
ciety Library, and a number of other similar organizations in 
different parts of the United States. As a working Library, re- 
plete with dictionaries and cyclopaedias, in many tongues and on 
almost every subject, it is a marvel. It is likewise very valuable 
for its collections on military and several other special topics. 
From it was selected and given to the New York Historical So- 
ciety, one of the finest possible collections on the History of 
Holland, from the earliest period down to the present time. In 
spite of all these donations it is still a curiosity shop ; not only 
for a bibliopole, but for a curio-seeker. 

A ferry from Tivoli to Saugerties affords communication be- 
tween the two villages. Glasco Landing, on the west bank, lies 
between the residences of Henry Corse, on the south, and the 
homes of Messrs. Polhemus, O. R. Spaulding and Mrs. Vander- 
pool (sister of the late President Martin Van Buren), on the 
north. 

In locating the residences at this part of our river and dealing 
so often in the words " north " and " south," we are reminded of 
a good story of Martin Van Buren. It is said that it was as dif- 
ficult to get a direct answer from him as from Bismarck or Glad- 
stone. Two friends were going up with him one day on a river 
boat and one made a wager with the other that a direct answer 
could not be secured on any question from the astute statesman. 
They approached the Ex-President and one of them said, " Mr. 
Van Buren, my friend and I have had a little discussion ; will 
you tell us, does or does not the sun rise in the east ? " The Ex- 
President calmly drew up a chair and said, " You must remem- 



THE HUDSON. 201 

ber that the east and west are merely relative terms." " That 
settles it," said the qustioner, " I'll pay the bet." 

Saugerties (101 miles from New York, population 4,237). 
The long dock on the west bank shows the enterprise of this 
prosperous village. From its location (being the nearest of the 
river towns to the Catskills) it naturally hoped to secure a large 
share of tourist travel, but Rondout and Catskill presented 
easier and better facilities of access and materially shortened 
the hours of arrival at the summit. Platterkill Clove, wilder 
and grander than Kaaterskill Clove, about nine miles west of 
the village, has Platterkill Mountain, Indian Head, Twin 
Mountains and Sugar Loaf on the south, and High Peak and 
Round Top on the north. Its eighteen waterfalls not only give 
great variety to a pedestrian trip, but also ample field for the 
artist's brush. The Esopus, meeting the Hudson at Saugerties, 
supplies unfailing waterpower for its manufacturing industries, 
prominent among which are the Sheffield Paper Company, the 
Barkley Fibre Company (wood pulp), the Martin Company (card 
board) and a white lead factory. There are also large ship- 
ments of blue stone, evidences of which are seen in many places 
near at hand along the western bank. Many attractive strolls 
near Saugerties invite the visitor, notably the walk to Barkley 
Heights south of the Esopus. An extensive view is obtained 
from the West Shore Railroad Station west of the village 
and the drive thereto. North of Saugerties will be seen the 
docks and hamlets of Maiden, Evesport and West Camp, also 
the residences of J. G. Myers to the northwest of the Rock islet, 
and of H. T. Cos well, near which the steamer passes to the 
west of Livingston Flats. The west shore at West Camp was 



202 THE HUDSON. 

settled by exiles from the Palatinate, about 1710, and one of the 
old churches still stands a short distance inland. We are now 
in the midst of — ■ 

The Livingston Country, whose names and memories dot 
the landscape and adorn the history of the Hudson Valley. 
Dutchess and Columbia Counties meet on the east bank opposite 
that part of Saugerties where Sawyer's Creek flows into the 
Hudson. " Idele," occupied by Miss Clarkson, was originally 
called the Chancellor Place. "Clermont "is about half a mile 
to the north, the home of Clermont Livingston, an early manor 
house built by Robert R. Livingston, who, next to Hamilton, was 
the greatest New York statesman during our Revolutionary 
period. The manor church, not seen from the river, is at the 
old village of Clermont, about five miles due west from the man- 
sion. The Livingstons are of Scotch ancestry and have an illus- 
trious lineage. Robert Livingston, born in 1654, was descended 
from Mary Livingston, one of the "four Marys" who attended 
Mary Queen of Scots during her childhood and education in 
France. He came to the Hudson Valley with his father, and in 
1686 purchased from the Indians a tract of country reaching east 
twenty-two miles to the boundary of Massachusetts with a river 
frontage of twelve miles. This purchase was created, " the Lord- 
ship and Manor of Livingston," by Governor Thomas Dongan. 
In 1692 Robert built the manor house, but did not reside in it for 
twenty years. He was a friend of Captain Kidd and a powerful 
promoter of his enterprises. The manor consisted of 260,000 
acres. The estate of 13,000 acres, given to his second son Robert 
was called Clermont. Philip, his first son, inherited 247,000 acres, 
by old-time primogeniture succession. From each of these two 



. THE HUDSON. 203 

families sprang- a line of vigorous and resolute men. Robert R. 
Livingston, our Revolutionary hero, descended from the smaller 
estate, owned "Clermont" at the time it was burned by the 
British. It was soon re-built and Lafayette was a guest at the 
mansion during his visit to the United States in 1824. 

Above Clermont are the homes of J. T. Hill, T. S. Clarkson, 
E. H. Ludlow and the R. E. Livingston estate, opposite West 
Camp. Above West Camp landing on the west side, is the 
boundary line between Ulster and Greene Counties ; Ulster hav- 
ing kept us company all the way from Hampton Point opposite 
New Hamburgh. Throughout this long stretch of the river one 
industry must not be overlooked, well described by John Bur- 
roughs : 

"When the chill of the ice is out of the river and the snow 
and frost out of the air, the fishermen along the shore are on the 
lookout for the first arrival of shad. A few days of warm south 
wind the latter part of April will soon blow them up ; it is true 
also, that a cold north wind will as quickly blow them back. 
Preparations have been making for them all winter. In many 
a farm-house or other humble dwelling along the river, the an- 
cient occupation of knitting of fish-nets has been plied through 
the long winter evenings, perhaps every grown member of the 
household, the mother and her daughters as well as the father 
and his sons, lending a hand. The ordinary gill or drift-net 
used for shad fishing in the Hudson is from a half to three-quar- 
ters of a mile long, and thirty feet wide, containing about fifty 
or sixty pounds of fine linen twine, and it is a labor of many 
months to knit one. Formerly the fish were taken mainly by 
immense seines, hauled by a large number of men ; but now all 



204 THE HUDSON. 

the deeper part of the river is fished with the long, delicate gill- 
nets that drift to and fro with the tide, and are managed by two 
men in a boat. The net is of fine linen thread, and is practically 
invisible to the shad in the obscure river current : it hangs sus- 
pended perpendicularly in the water, kept in position by buoys 
at the top and by weights at the bottom ; the buoys are attached 
by cords twelve or fifteen feet long, which allow the net to sink 
out of the reach of the keels of passing vessels. The net is 
thrown out on the ebb tide, stretching nearly across the river, 
and drifts down and then back on the flood, the fish being snared 
behind the gills in their efforts to pass through the meshes. I 
envy fishermen their intimate acquaintance with the river. 
They know it by night as well as by day, and learn all its moods 
and phases. The net is a delicate instrument that reveals all 
the hidden currents and by-ways, as well as all the sunken 
snags and wrecks at the bottom. By day the fishermen notes 
the shape and position of his net by means of the line or buoys ; 
by night he marks the far end of it with a lantern fastened upon 
a board or block. The night tides he finds differ from the day 
— the flood at night being much stronger than at other times, as 
if some pressure had been removed with the sun, and the freed 
currents found less hindrance. The fishermen have terms and 
phrases of their own. The wooden tray upon which the net is 
coiled, and which sits in the the stern of the boat, is called a 
'cuddy.' The net is divided into 'shots.' If a passing sloop 
or schooner catches it with her center-board or her anchor, it 
gives way where two of these shoots meet, and thus the whole 
net is not torn. The top cord or line of the net is called a ' cim- 
line.' One fisherman 'plugs' another when he puts out 



THE HUDSON. 205 

from the shore and casts in ahead of him, instead of going- to the 
general starting - place, and taking his turn. This always makes 
bad blood. The luck of the born fisherman is about as conspic- 
uous with the gill-net as with the rod and line, some boats being 
noted for their great catches the season through. No doubt the 
secret is mainly through application to the business in hand, 
but that is about all that distinguishes the successful angler. 
The shad campaign is one that requires pluck and endurance ; 
no regular sleep, no regular meals ; wet and cold, heat and wind 
and tempest, and no great gains at last. But the sturgeon 
fishers, who come later and are seen the whole summer through, 
have an indolent, lazy time of it. They fish around the ' slack- 
water,' catching the last of the ebb and the first of the flow, and 
hence drift but little either way. To a casual observer they ap- 
pear as if anchored and asleep. But they wake up when they 
have a ' strike,' which may be everyday, or not once a week. 
The fishermen keep their eye on the line of buoys, and when two 
or more of them are hauled under, he knows his game has run 
foul of the net, and he hastens to the point. The sturgeon is a 
pig, without the pig's obstinacy. He spends much of the time 
rooting and feeding in the mud at the bottom, and encounters 
the net, coarse and strong, when he goes abroad. He strikes, 
and is presently hopelessly entangled, when he comes to the top 
and is pulled into the boat, like a great sleepy sucker. For so 
dull and lubberly a fish, the sturgeon is capable of some very 
lively antics ; as, for instance, his habit of leaping full length 
into the air and coming down with a great splash. He has thus 
been known to leap unwittingly into a passing boat, to his own 
great surprise, and to the alarm and consternation of the in- 
mates." 



206 THE HUDSON. 

Germantown. Germantown Station is now seen on tne east 
bank, and between this and Germantown Dock, three miles to 
the north, is obtained the best view of the " Man in the Mount- 
ain," readily traced by the following- outline : The peak to the 
south is the knee, the next to the north is the breast, and two or 
three above this the chin, the nose and the forehead. How 
often from the slope of Hillsdale, forty miles away on the western 
trend of tne Berkshires, when a boy, playing- by the fountain- 
heads of the Kinderhook and the Roeliffe Jansen's Creek, have I 
looked out upon this mountain range aglow in the sunset, and at 
even-tide heard my grandfather tell of his far-off journeys to 
Towanda. Pennsylvania, when he drove through the great 
Cloves of the Catskills, where twice he met " a bear " which re- 
treated at the sound of his old flint-lock, and then when I went 
to sleep at night how I pulled the coverlet closer about my head, 
all on account of those two bears that had been dead for more 
than forty years. 

The Catskills were called by the Indians On-ti-o-ras, or Mount- 
ains of the sky, as they sometimes seem like clouds along the 
horizon. This range of mountains was supposed by the Indians 
to have been originally a monster who devoured all the children 
of the Red Men, until the Great Spirit touched him when he 
was going down to the salt lake to bathe, and here he remains. 
" Two little lakes upon the summit were regarded the eyes of 
the monster, and these are open all the summer; but in the 
winter they are covered with a thick crust or heavy film ; but 
whether sleeping or waking tears always trickle down his 
cheeks. In these mountains, according to Indian belief, was 
kept the great treasury of storm and sunshine, presided over by 



THE HUDSON. 



207 



an old squaw spirit who dwelt on the highest peak of the mount- 
ains. She kept day and night shut up in her wigwam, letting 
out only one at a time. She manufactured new moons every 




THE MAN IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

month, cutting up the old ones into stars," and, like the old 
^olus of mythology, shut the winds up in the caverns of the 
hills:— 

Where Manitou once lived and reigned, 

Great Spirit of a race gone by, 
And Ontiora lies enchained 
With face uplifted to the sky, 



208 THE HUDSON 

The similarity of the words Ontario and Ontiora is suggestive 
as connected with this legend, and Henry Abbey has put the 
story in graphic verse : 

" In the sleep, or night, of the moon 

The monster was stalking abroad, 

On his way to the sea for a bath, 

For a bath in the salt, gray sea; 

And he trod the Red-men down, 

Slaying them as he went, 

Or drove them out of the land 

As the winter drives the birds. 
******* 
" Midway between the lakes 

And the waters that reach to the sky- 
Between the crystal fountains 
And the headstrong, white-plumed sea-. 
And near the King of Rivers, 
Which widens and deepens like life, 
To Ontiora spoke 
Manitou, out of the sky, 
Manitou, father of all, 
The one Great Spirit of Good, 
To the man-shaped monster spoke: 
' You shall not go to the sea, 
But forever here on the land, 
Shall lie on your giant back, 
And wail in the blast, and weep 

For the Red-men you have slain.' 
******* 
" So Ontiora wild, 

By eternal quiet touched, 

Fell backward in a swoon, 

And was changed into peaceful hills, 

The Mountains of the Sky. 



THE HUDSON. 209 

" And whenever you sail along 
By the Kaatskills high and grand 
You may see the form of him, 
The monster that, moons ago, 
The Manitou changed into this; 
He lies with his face to the sky, 
You can mark his knees and breast, 
And forehead lofty and large; 
But his eyes, they say, are lakes 
Whose tears flow down in streams 
That seam and wrinkle his cheeks, 
For the fate that he hears, and regret 
For the evil he did as he stalked 
In the sleep, or night of the moon, 
Moons on moons ago." 

We are now in what is known as The Clover Reach of the 
Hudson which extends to the Backerack Reach near Athens. 
One mile above Germantown Dock stood Nine Mile Tree, a land- 
mark among old river pilots, probably so named on account of 
its marking a point nine miles from Hudson. Above this the 
Roeliffe Jansen's Kill flows into the river, known by the Indians 
as Saupenak, rising in Hillsdale within a few feet of Greenriver 
Creek, embalmed by Bryant in verse. The Greenriver flows east 
into the Housatonic, the Jansen south into Dutchess County, 
whence it takes a northerly course until it joins the Hudson. 
The Burden iron furnaces above the mouth of the stream form 
an ugly feature in the landscape. This is the southern boundary 
of the Herman Livingston estate, whose house is one mile and a 
half further up the river, near Livingston Dock, beneath Oak 
Hill. Catskill station is now seen on the east bank, and di- 
rectly opposite Catskill Landing on the west bank, which the 
steamer is now approaching is the village of — 



210 THE HUDSON. 

Catskill, (111 miles from New York, population 4,922), 
founded in 1678 by the purchase of several square miles from the 
Indians. The landing is immediately above the mouth of the 
Catskill or Kaaterskill Creek. It is said that the creek and 
mountains derive their name as follows : It is known that each 
tribe had a totemic emblem, or rude banner ; the Mahicans had 
the wolf as their emblem, and some say that the word Mahican 
means an enchanted wolf. (The Lenni Lenapes, or Delawares, 
at the Highlands, had the turkey as their totem.) Catskill was 
the southern boundary of the Mahicans on the west bank, and 
here they set up their emblem. It is said from this fact the 
stream took the name of Kaaters-kill. The large cat and wolf 
were at least similar in appearance, from the mark of King 
Aepgin on his deed to Van Rensselaer. Perhaps, however, the 
mountains at one time abounded in these animals, and the 
emblem may be only a coincidence. The old village, with its 
Main street, lies along the valley of the Catskill Creek, not 
quite a mile from the Causeway Landing, and preserves some of 
the features of the days when Knickerbocker was accustomed to 
pay it an annual visit. The location seems to have been chosen 
as a place of security — out of sight to one voyaging up the river. 
The village has, however, grown of late, and the northern slope 
reveals fine residences, all of which command extensive views 
of the Hudson. Just out of the village proper, on a beautiful 
outlook, stands the charming Prospect Park Hotel, unrivaled in 
its beauty of location. It has a most delightful piazza, four 
hundred feet long, sixteen feet wide, supported by Corinthian 
pillars twenty-five feet high, with many private balconies, and 
charming views from every room. The main building is two 



THE HUDSON. " 211 

hundred and fifty feet front, with wing one hundred and fifty feet 
by forty, situated in a large and beautiful park. This handsome 
park adjoins the best residence portion -of the village, thus 
affording miles of elegant shady walks and drives near at hand. 
The views and scenery from the "Prospect" are unsurpassed. 
The Hudson, with its ever-changing scenes of busy life in view 
for forty miles ; the majestic mountains in their quiet grandeur * 
the Berkshire Hills in the distance ; the many handsome country 
seats and mansions on both sides of the Hudson ; the busy little 
village of Catskill and the Catskill River in plain view, all 
unite in a charming panorama. The drives and pedestrian 
routes in the vicinity of Catskill are well condensed by Walton 
Van Loan, a resident of the village, whose guide to the Catskills 
is the best on this region and will be of great service to all who 
would like to understand thoroughly the mountain district. 

The Northern Catskills.— The northern and southern divis- 
ions have been indicated not so much as mountain divisions, but 
in order to better emphasize the two routes, which converge 
from Kingston and Catskill toward each other, drawn by two 
principal points of attraction, the Catskill Mountain House and 
the Hotel Kaaterskill. 

The Catskill Mountain House has been widely known for 
seventy years. The original proprietor had the choice of loca- 
tion in 1823, when the entire range was a vast mountain wilder- 
ness, and he made excellent selection for its site. It seems as if 
the rocky balcony was especially reared two thousand feet above 
the valley for a grand outlook and restful resort. "What can 
you see," exclaimed Natty Bumppo, one of Cooper's favorite 
characters. "Why, all the world ; " and this is the feeling 



212 THE HUDSON. 

to-day of everyone looking down from this point upon the Hud- 
son Valley. 

The Mountain House Park has a valley frontage of over three 
miles in extent, and consists of 2,780 acres of magnificent forest and 
farming lands, traversed in all directions by many miles of car, 
riage roads and paths, leading to various noted places of interest- 
The Crest, Newman's Ledge, Bear's Den, Prospect Rock on 
North Mountain, and Eagle Rock and Palenville Overlook on 
South Mountain, from which the grandest views of the region 
are obtained, are contained in the property. It also includes 
within its boundaries North and South Lakes, both plentifully 
stocked with various kind of fish and well supplied with boats and 
canoes. The atmosphere is delightful, invigorating and pure ; 
the great elevation and surrounding forest render it free from 
malaria. The temperature is alway fifteen to twenty degrees 
lower than at Catskill village, New York City or Philadelphia. 

Within the past ten years these mountains have been brought 
into closer touch with the outer world largely through the 
efforts of Commodore Van Santvoord, President of the Hudson 
River Day Line ; George Harding, the well-known lawyer of 
Philadelphia, proprietor of the Hotel Kaaterskill, F. B. Thur- 
ber, George Wingate, Mrs. Wheeler and others. 

The Otis Elevating Railway, extending from Otis Junction on 
the Catskill Mountain Bailway to Catskill Mountain Station at 
the summit of the mountains, makes the Mountain House espe- 
cially easy of access. The incline railway, 7,000 feet in length, 
ascends 1,600 feet and attains an elevation of 2,200 feet above 
the Hudson River. "In length, elevation, overcome and carry- 
ing capacity it exceeds any other incline railway in the world. 



THE HUDSON. 



213 



It was built and first opened for traffic in 1892. It is operated by- 
powerful stationary engines and huge steel wire cables, and the 
method employed is similar to that used by the Otis Elevator 
Company for elevators in buildings. Every safeguard has been 
provided, so that an accident of any kind is practically impossi- 
ble. Should the machinery break, the cables snap or track 




KAATERSKILL FALLS. 



spread, an ingenious automatic device would stop the cars at 
once. A passenger car and baggage car are attached to each 
end of double cables which pass around immense drums located 
at the top of the incline. While one train rises the other descends, 
passing each other midway. By this arrangement trains carrying 



214 THE HUDSON. 

from seventy-five to one hundred passengers can be run in each 
direction every fifteen minutes when necessary, the time required 
for a trip being only ten minutes. This is a vast improvement 
over the old way of making the ascent of the mountains by stage, 
as it reduces the time fully one and a half hours, besides adding 
greatly to the pleasure of the trip. The ride up the mountains 
on the incline railway is a novel and delightful experience, and 
is alone worth a visit to the Catskills. As the train ascends, the 
magnificient panorama of the valley of the Hudson, extending 
for miles and miles, is gradually unfolded ; while the river itself, 
like a ribbon of silver glistening in the sun, and the Berkshire 
Hills in the distance seem to rise to the view of the passenger. 
At the summit of the incline, stages are taken for the Hotel 
Kaaterskill and Catskill Mountain House, while passengers for 
the Laurel House, Haines Corners, Ontiora, Sunset, Twilight, 
Santa Cruz, Elka Parks, and Tannersville, take the trains of the 
Kaaterskill Bailroad, which has been extended to connect with 
the Otis Elevating Bailway." 

Two miles from the hotel are the Kaaterskill Falls. The 
waters fall perpendicularly 175 feet and afterward 85 feet more. 
The amphitheatre behind the cascade is the scene of one of 

Bryant's finest poems : 

" From greens and shades where the Kaaterskill leaps 
From cliffs where the wood flowers cling;" 
and we recall the lines which express so beautifully the well- 
nigh fatal dream 

" Of that dreaming one 
By the base of that icy steep, 

When over his stiffening limbs begun 
The deadly slumber of frost to creep." 




RIP VAX WINKLE'S RETURN. 



THE HUDSON. 



217 



About half-way up the mountain is the place said to be the 
dreamland of Rip Van Winkle — the greatest character of 
American mythology, more real than the heroes of Homer or 
the massive gods of Olympus. The railway, however, has rather 
dispensed with Rip Van Winkle. The old drivers had so long 
pointed out the identical spot where he slept that they had 




LOWER FALLS OF THE KAATERSKILL. 

come to believe in it, but his spirit still haunts the entire lo- 
cality, and we can get along without his decidedly open air bed- 
room. It will not be necessary to quote from a recent guide- 
book that " no intelligent person probably believes that such a 
character ever really existed or had such an experience." The 
explanation is almost as humorous as the legend. 



218 THE HUDSON. 

The Hotel Kaaterskill, whose name and fame went over a 
continent even before it was fairly completed, is located on the 
summit of the Kaaterskill Mountain, three miles by carriage or 
one by path from the Catskill Mountain House. It is the largest 
mountain hotel in the world, accommodating 1,200 guests, and 
the Catskills have reason to feel proud of this distinction. They 
have for many years had the best-known legend — the wonderful 
and immortal Rip Van Winkle. They have always enjoyed the 
finest valley views of any mountain outlook, and they have a right 
to the best hotels. The Kaaterskill, opened in 1881, is constructed 
on the most improved of modern designs, with elegant parlors, 
suites of rooms for families, and steam heat and open-fire grates 
for dining-halls and parlors. Elevators run to all floors, and the 
rooms are supplied with gas, electric bells and elegant beds and 
furnishings. The surrounding park includes groves, lakes, 
lawn tennis and other play-grounds, with every means of enjoy- 
ment. Billiard rooms, bowling alleys and telegraph offices are 
in the hotel. 

It may seem antiquated and old-fashioned in the midst of ele- 
vated railroads to speak of mountain roads, but that to Palenville, 
as we last saw it, was a beautiful piece of engineering — as smooth 
as a floor and securely built. It looks as if it were intended to 
last for a century, the stone work is so thoroughly finished. The 
views from this road are superior to anything we have seen in 
the Catskills, and the great sweep of the mountain clove is as 
grand and beautiful as the Sierra Nevadas on the way to the 
Yosemite. 

We must not forget, moreover, another Catskill drive that we 
took a few years ago. Starting one morning with a pair of mus- 



THE HUDSON. 219 

tang" ponies from Phoenicia, we called at the Kaaterskill, the 
Catskill Mountain House, and the Laurel House, took supper at 
Catskill Village, and reached New York that evening at eleven 
o'clock. It is unnecessary to say that we were on business — our 
Guide book was on the press— and we went as if one of the 
printers' best-known companions was on our trail. 

Irving's description of his first voyage up the Hudson brings 
us more delicately and gracefully down from these mountains to 
the Hudson — the level highway to the sea. "Of all the scenery 
of the Hudson, the Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching 
effect on my boyish imagination. Never shall I forget the effect 
upon me of my first view of them, predominating over a wide 
extent of country — part wild, woody and rugged; part softened 
away into all the graces of cultivation. As we slowly floated 
along, I lay on the deck and watched them through a long sum- 
mer's day, undergoing a thousand mutations under the magical 
effects of atmosphere; sometimes seeming to approach; at other 
times to recede; now almost melting into hazy distance, now 
burnished by the setting sun, until in the evening they printed 
themselves against the glowing sky in the deep purple of an 
Italian landscape." 



220 THE HUDSON. 



CATSKILL TO HUDSON. 

Leaving- Catskill dock, the Prospect Park Hotel looks down 
upon us from a commanding - point on the west bank, while north 
of this can be seen Cole's Grove, where Thomas Cole, the artist, 
lived, who painted the well-known series, the Voyage of Life. 
On the east side is Rodger's Island, where it is said the last bat- 
tle was fought between the Mahicans and Mohawks ; and it is 
narrated that " as the old king of the Mahicans was dying, after 
the conflict, he commanded his regalia to be taken off and his 
son put into the kingship while his eyes were yet clear to behold 
him. Over forty years had he worn it, from the time he received 
it in London from Queen Anne. He asked his son to kneel at 
his couch, and, putting his withered hand across his brow, 
placed the feathery crown upon his head, and gave him the sil- 
ver-mounted tomahawk — symbols of power to rule and power to 
execute. Then, looking up to the heavens, he said, as if in 
despair for his race, ' The hills are our pillows, and the broad 
plains to the west our hunting-grounds ; our brothers are called 
into the bright wigwam of the Everlasting, and our bones lie 
upon the fields of many battles ; but the wisdom of the dead is 
given to the living.' " 

On the east bank of the Hudson, above this historic island, is 
the residence of Frederick E. Church, artist. It commands a 
wide view of the Berkshire Hills to the eastward, and westward 
to the Catskills. Dr. Sabine's residence is immediately north, 
and two miles beyond is the home of O. D. Ashley. The State 
Reformatory is now seen on the bluff immediately below the 



THE HUDSON. 221 

South Bay. The hill above Rodgers's Island, on the east bank, 
is known as Mount Merino, one of the first places to which Merino 
sheep were brought in this country. 

Hudson, (115 miles from New York ; population 9,633), was 
founded in the year 1784, by thirty persons from Providence, 
R. I., and incorporated as a city in 1785. The city is situated on 
a sloping- promontory, bounded by the North and South Bays. 
Its main streets, Warren, Union and Allen, run east and west a 
little more than a mile in length, crossed by Front Street, First, 
Second, Third, etc. Main Street reaches from Promenade Park 
to Prospect Hill. The Park is on the bluff just above the steam- 
boat landing ; we believe this city is the only one on the Hudson 
that has a promenade ground overlooking the river. It com- 
mands a fine view of the Catskill Mountains, Mount Merino, and 
miles of the rivet* scenery. The city has always enjoyed the 
reputation of hospitality. It is the western terminus of the Hud- 
son and Chatham Division of the Boston & Albany Railroad, and 
also of the Kinderhook & Hudson Railway. 

From an old-time English history we read that Hudson grew 
more rapidly than any other town in America except Baltimore. 
Standing at the head of ship navigation it would naturally have 
become a great port had it not been for the steam engine and 
the steamboat. 

There was also a good sprinkling of Nantucket blood, and vis- 
itors from that quaint old town recognize in portico, stoop and 
window a familiar architecture. An electric surface line on 
Warren Street, showing public spirit, has proved a successful 
enterprise. 



222 THE HUDSON. 

Columbia Springs, an old-fashioned resort with, pleasant 
grove and white sulphur water, lies four miles northeast of Hud- 
son. Its medicinal qualities are attested by scores of physicians, 
and by hundreds who have been benefited and cured. The hotel 
has a fine location in the midst of a woodland many acres in ex- 
tent, and we know of no quieter spot for those requiring repose 
and seeking relief from the excitement of business. The drive 
is pleasant and the return can be made through — 

Claverack, three and a half miles east of Hudson, a restful 
old-fashioned village. It is situated at the crossing of the old 
Post Road and the Columbia turnpike and was county seat of 
Columbia in Knickerbocker days. The Court House on its well- 
shaded street was for many years the home of the late Peter 
Hoffman. Claverack College has a delightful location, with 
pleasant wooded grounds commanding a noble view of the Cats- 
kills. The late Rev. Alonzo Flack, President, had a stately 
residence near at hand, most complete in the county. He was 
an enthusiast in the cause of education and laid the foundation 
of many successful careers in life. Claverack graduates have an 
annual dinner in New York, and the College preserves its pres- 
tige under the successful management of the founder's son, 
President Arthur Flack. The Dutch Reformed Church, built of 
bricks brought from Holland, and only a short distance north of 
the College grounds, wears on its brow wrinkles of antiquity,, 
emphasized by the date 1767 on its walls. It is said that General 
Washington encamped here, but there is no historical data to 
confirm the tradition. Claverack Falls is well worthy of a visit, 
and can easily be done in an afternoon stroll. Copake Lake, to 
the southeast, can be reached by a drive of about twelve miles, 



THE HUDSON. 223 

a fine sheet of water ten miles in circumference, with a pictur- 
esque island connected to the main land by a causeway. Forty 
years ago a romantic ruin of a stone mansion still stood on this 
island, where the writer, when a boy, used to wander around the 
deserted rooms looking- for ghosts, but the walls were torn 
down July 4th, 1866, as the place was frequented every summer 
by a remnant of the old Stockbridge tribe. The neighbors 
thought the best way of getting rid of the " noble red men" was 
to burn up the hive. The mansion was built by a Miss Living- 
ston, but she soon exchanged her island home for Florence and 
the classic associations of Italy. Bash-Bish, one mile from 
Copake Station on the Harlem Bailroad, one of the most romantic 
glens in our country, has been visited and eulogized by Henry 
Ward Beecher, Bayard Taylor and many distinguished writers 
and travelers. Soon after leaving Copake Station a beautiful 
carriage road, but extremely narrow, strikes the left bank of 
this mountain stream, and for a long distance follows its rocky 
channel. On the right a thickly wooded hill rises abruptly 
more than a thousand feet — a perfect wall of foliage from base 
to summit. A mile brings one to the lower falls ; the upper falls 
are about a quarter of a mile farther up the gorge. The height 
of the Falls, with the Rapids between, is about 300 feet above 
the little rustic bridge at the foot of the Lower Falls. The glen 
between is a place of wild beauty, with rocks and huge boulders 
" in random ruin piled." 

Hillsdale Village has a beautiful location and affords a good 
central point for visiting Mount Everett, with its wide prospect 
(altitude 2,624 feet), Copake Lake six miles to the west, Bash- 
Bish Falls six miles south, and Po-ka-no five miles to the north- 



224 THE HUDSON. 

east, sometimes known as White's Hill. The Po-ka-no, Colum- 
bia County's noblest outlook, 1,713 feet, commands the Hudson 
valley for eighty miles ; and the owner told me that one Fourth 
of July he went up there to see the fireworks at Newburgh. 
From the summit can be seen "Monument Mountain " and the 
Green Mountains of Vermont. At its base glides the "Green 
River Creek," immortalized by Bryant, which flows into the 
Housatonic near Great Barrington. From this point the drive 
can be continued to North Egremont, South Egremont, Great 
Barrington and Monument Mountain. Before the days of rail- 
roads the Columbia turnpike was the great trade artery of the 
City of Hudson. It was interesting to hear William Cullen 
Bryant recount his experiences in driving from his home in 
Great Barrington over the well-known highway on his way to 
New York. The Housatonic and Harlem Railroads tapped its life 
and has left many a sleepy village along the route, once astir in 
staging days. The stone for Girard College was drawn from 
Massachusetts quarries over this route and shipped to Phila- 
delphia from Hudson. The Lebanon Valley, in the northeastern 
part of the county, is considered one of the most beautiful in the 
State, and said by Sir Henry Vincent, the English orator, to 
resemble the far-famed valley of Llangollen, in Wales. The 
Wy-a-mon-ack Creek flows through the Valley, joining its waters 
with the Kinderhook. Quechee Lake is near at hand, where 
Miss Warner was born, author of "Quechee" and the "Wide 
Wide World." Lebanon Springs is an old-time pleasant sum- 
mer resort, and its hotel registers preserve the autographs of 
many of the most eminent men of our country. The Shaker 



THE HUDSON. 225 

family on Mt. Lebanon is well worthy of a visit. A Sunday serv- 
ice reveals some of the peculiarities of their worship. 

Linden wald, a solid and substantial residence, home of 
President Martin Van Buren, where he died in 1862, is two miles 
from the charming - village of Kinderhook. Columbia County 
just missed the proud distinction of rearing two Presidents, as 
Samuel J. Tilden was born in the town of Lebanon. Elisha Wil- 
liams, John Van Buren and many others have g-iven lustre to 
her legal annals. 



226 THE HUDSON. 



FROM HUDSON TO ALBANY. 

Athens. Directly opposite Hudson, and connected with it 
by ferry, is the classically named village of Athens. An old 
Mahican settlement known as Potick was located a little back 
from the river. We are now in the midst of the great " Ice In- 
dustry," which reaches from below Staatsburgh to Castleton and 
Albany, well described by John Burroughs in his article on the 
Hudson : " No man sows, yet many men reap a harvest from the 
Hudson. Not the least important is the ice harvest, which is 
eagerly looked for, and counted upon by hundreds, yes, thousands 
of laboring men along its course. Ice or no ice sometimes means 
bread or no bread to scores of families, and it means added or di- 
minished comforts to many more. It is a crop that takes two or 
three weeks of rugged winter weather to grow, and, if the water 
is very roily or brackish, even longer. It is seldom worked till it 
presents seven or eight inches of clear water ice. Men go out 
from time to time and examine it, as the farmer goes out and 
examines his grain or grass, to see when it will do to cut. If 
there comes a deep fall of snow the ice is " pricked " so as to let 
the water up through and form snow ice. A band of fifteen or 
twenty men, about a yard apart, each armed with a chisel-bar, 
and marching in line, puncture the ice at each step, with a 
single sharp thrust. To and fro they go, leaving a belt behind 
them that presently becomes saturated with water. But ice, to 
be of first quality, must grow from beneath, not from above. It 
is a crop quite as uncertain as any other. A good yield every 
two or three years, as they say of wheat out West, is about all 



THE HUDSON. 227 

that can be counted upon. When there is an abundant harvest, 
after the ice-houses are filled, they stack great quantities of it, 
as the farmer stacks his surplus hay. Such a fruitful winter 
was that of '74-5, when the ice formed twenty inches thick. 
The stacks are given only a temporary covering of boards, and 
are the first ice removed in the season. The cutting and gather- 
ing of the ice enlivens* these broad, white, desolate fields 
amazingly. My house happens to stand where I look down upon 
the busy scene, as from a hill-top upon a river meadow in hay- 
ing time, only here figures stand out much more sharply than 
they do from a summer meadow. There is the broad, straight, 
blue-black canal emerging into view, and running nearly across 
the river ; this is the highway that lays open the farm. On 
either side lie the fields, or ice meadows, each marked out by 
cedar or hemlock boughs. The farther one is cut first, and, 
when cleared, shows a large, long, black parallelogram in the 
midst of the plain of snow. Then the next one is cut, leaving a 
strip or tongue of ice between the two for the horses to move 
and turn upon. Sometimes nearly two hundred men and boys, 
with numerous horses, are at work at once, marking, plowing, 
planing, scraping, sawing, hauling, chiseling ; some floating 
down the pond on great square islands towed by a horse, or their 
fellow workmen ; others distributed along the canal, bending to 
their ice-hooks ; others upon the bridges, separating the blocks 
with their chisel bars ; others feeding the elevators ; while 
knots and straggling lines of idlers here and there look on in 
cold discontent, unable to get a job. The best crop of ice is an 
early crop. Late in the season or after January, the ice is apt 
to get " sun-struck," when it becomes " shaky," like a piece of 



228 THE HUDSON. 

poor timber. The sun, when he sets about destroying 1 the ice, 
does not simply melt it from the surface — that were a slow pro- 
cess ; but he sends his shafts into it and separates it into spikes 
and needles — in short, makes kindling-wood of it, so as to con- 
sume it the quicker. One of the prettiest sights about the ice 
harvesting is the elevator in operation. When all works well, 
there is an unbroken procession of the great crystal blocks slowly 
ascending this incline. They go up in couples, arm in arm, 
as it were, like friends up a stairway, glowing and changing in 
the sun, and recalling the precious stones that adorned the walls 
of the celestial city. When they reach the platform where they 
leave the elevator, they seem to step off like things of life and 
volition ; they are still in pairs and separate only as they enter 
upon the "runs." But here they have an ordeal to pass through, 
for they are subjected to a rapid inspection and the black sheep 
are separated from the flock ; every square with a trace of sedi- 
ment or earth-stain in it, whose texture is not perfect and un- 
clouded crystal, is rejected and sent hurling down into the abyss ; 
a man with a sharp eye in his head and a sharp ice-hook in his 
hand picks out the impure and fragmentary ones as they come 
along and sends them quickly overboard. Those that pass the 
examination glide into the building along the gentle incline, 
and are switched off here and there upon branch runs, and dis- 
tributed to all parts of the immense interior. 

Passing west of the Hudson Flats we see North Bay, crossed 
by the New York Central Railroad. Kinderhook Creek meets 
the river about three miles north of Hudson, directly above 
which is Stockport Station for Columbiaville. Four Mile Light- 
house is now seen on the opposite bank between the house of 



■ 



. 









THE HUDSON. 229 

John Burchill to the south and George Houghtaling to the 
north. Nutten Hook, or Coxsackie Station, is four miles above 
Stockport. Opposite this point, and connected by a ferry, is the 
village of— 

Coxsackie (name derived from Kaak-aki, which is said to 
have signified a place of geese). Two miles to the north Stuyve- 
sant Landing is seen on the east bank, the nearest station on the 
New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, by carriage, to 
Valatie and Kinderhook Village. The name Kinderhook is 
said to have had its origin from a point on the Hudson prolific 
of children ; and as the children were always out of doors to see 
the passing craft, it was known as Kinder-hook, or "children's 
point." Passing Bronk's Island, due west of which empties 
Coxsackie Creek, we see Stuyvesant Light-house on our right, 
on our left the homes of James K. Bronk, Andrew Matthews, 
E. S. Colburn, J. C. Sherman, A. L. Wickes, T. E. Cornell, J. B. 
Marshall, or their successors in the ever-changing map of hu- 
man existence, and approach New Baltimore, a pleasant village 
on the west bank, with sloop and barge industry. About a mile 
above the landing is the meeting point of four counties : Greene 
and Albany on the west, Columbia and Rensselaer on the east. 
Beeren Island, connected with Coeyman's Landing by small 
steamer, now a picnic resort, lies near the west bank, where it 
will be remembered the first white child was born on the Hudson. 
Here was the Castle of Rensselaertein, before which Anthony 
Van Corlear read again and again the proclamation of Peter 
Stuyvesant, and from which he returned with a diplomatic re- 
ply, forming one of the most humorous pages in Irving's Knick- 
erbocker. Threading our way through low-lying islands and 



230 THE HUDSON. 

river flats, and " slowing- down " occasionally on meeting canal 
boats or other river craft, we pass Coeyman's on our left and Lower 
Schodack Island on our right, due east of which is the station of 
Schodack Landing. The writer of this Hand-book, when a law- 
student at Troy, remembers distinctly a winter's evening walk 
from Schodack Landing, crossing the frozen Hudson and snow- 
covered island on an ill-defined trail. He was on his way to 
deliver his first lecture, February, 1868, and his subject was 
" The Legends and Poetry of the Hudson." Since that time he 
has written and re-written a guide to the river for twenty years, 
so that the present Hand-book is not a thing of yesterday. The 
next morning, on his return to Schodack, he had for his com- 
panion a young man from twenty or thirty miles inland, who 
had never seen a train of cars except in the distance. On reach- 
ing the platform one of the New York expresses swept by, and 
as he caught the motion of the bell cord he turned and said : 
"Do they drive it with that little string ? " Lower Schodack 
Island, Mills Plaat (also an island) and Upper Schodack Island 
reach almost to — 

Castleton, a pleasant village with main street lying close to 
the river, on its eastern bank. The cliffs, a few miles to the 
north, were known to the Indians as Scoti-ack, or place of the 
ever-burning council-fire, which gave the name of Schodack to 
the township, where King Aepgin, on the 8th of April, 1680, sold 
to Van Rensselaer " all that tract of country on the west side of 
the Hudson, extending from Beeren Island up to Smack's Island, 
and in breadth two days' journey." 

The Mahican Tribe originally occupied all the east bank of 
the Hudson north of Roeliffe Jansen's Kill, near Germantown, to 



THE HUDSON. 231 

the head waters of the Hudson : and on the west bank, from 
Cohoes to Catskill. The town of Schodack was central, and a 
signal displayed from the hills near Castleton could be seen for 
thirty miles in every direction. After the Mahicans left the 
Hudson, they went to Westenhook, or Housatonic, to the hills 
south of Stockbridge ; and then, on invitation of the Oneidas, 
removed to Oneida County, in 1785, where they lived until 1821, 
when, with other Indians of New York, they purchased a tract 
of land near Fox River, Minnesota. 

Domestic clans or families of the Mahicans lingered around 
their ancient seats for some years after the close of the Revolu- 
tion, but of them, one after another, it is written, " They dis- 
appeared in the night." In the language of Tamerund at the 
death of Uncas, " The pale-faces are masters of the earth, and 
the time of the red men has not yet come again. My day has 
been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of Unami happy 
and strong ; and yet before the night has come, have I lived to 
see the last warrior of the race of the Mahicans." 

According to Ruttenber, the names and location of the Indian 
tribes were not ascertained with clearness by the early Dutch 
settlers, but through documents, treaties and information, sub- 
sequently obtained, it is now settled that the Mahicans held pos- 
session " under sub- tribal organizations " of the east bank of the 
river from an undefined point north of Albany to the sea, includ- 
ing Long Island ; that their dominion extended east to the Con- 
necticut, where they joined kindred tribes ; that on the west 
bank of the Hudson they ran down as far as Catskill, and west to 
Schenectady ; that they were met on the west by the territory 
of the Mohawks, and on the south by tribes of the Lenni Lenapes 



232 THE HUDSON. 

or Delawares, whose territory extended thence to the sea, and 
west to and beyond the Delaware River. The Mahicans had a 
castle at Catskill and at Cohoes Falls. The western side of the 
Hudson, above Cohoes, belonged to the Mohawks, a branch of 
the Iroquois. Therefore, as early as 1630, three great nations 
were represented on the Hudson — the Mahicans, the Delawares 
and the Iroquois. The early French missionaries refer to the 
" nine nations of Manhinyans, gathered between Manhattan and 
the environs of Quebec." These several nations have never been 
accurately designated, although certain general divisions appear- 
under the titles of Mohegan, Wappinger, Sequins, etc. "The 
government of the Mahicans was a democracy. The office was 
hereditary by the lineage of the wife ; that is, the selection of a 
successor on the death^of the chief, was confined to the female 
branch of the family." According to Ruttenber, the precise 
relation between the Mahicans of the Hudson and the Mohegans 
under Uncas, the Pequot chief, is not known. In a foot-note to 
this statement, he says: "The identity of name between the 
Mahicans and Mohegans, induces the belief that all these tribes 
belonged to the same stock,— although they differed in dialect, 
in territory, and in their alliances." The two words, therefore, 
must not be confounded. 

It is also pleasant to remember that the Mahicans as a tribe 
were true and faithful to us during the war of the Revolution, 
and when the six nations met in council at Oswego, at the 
request of Guy Johnson and other officers of the British army, 
" to eat the flesh and drink the blood of aBostonian," Hendrich, 
the Mahican, made the pledge for his tribe at Albany, almost in 



THE HUDSON. 233 

the eloquent words of Ruth to Naomi, " Thy people shall be our 
people, and whither thou goest we will be at your side." 

Tlie Mourdener's Kill, with its sad story of a girl tied by 
Indians to a horse and dragged through the valley, flows into 
the Hudson above Castleton. Two miles above this close to the 
steamer channel will be seen Staats Island on the east, with an 
old stone house, said to be next in antiquity to the " Van Rens- 
selaer " at Greenbush. It is also a fact that this property passed 
directly to the ancestors of the present family, the only property 
in this vicinity never owned by the lord of the manor. Oppo- 
site the old stone house, the point on the west bank is known as 
Parda Hook, where it is said a horse was once drowned in a 
horse-race on the ice, and hence the name Parda, for the old 
Hollanders along the Hudson seemed to have had a musical ear, 
and delighted in accumulating syllables. (The word pard is 
used in Spenser for spotted horse, and still survives in the word 
leopard.) 

The Castleton Bar or " overslaugh," as it was known by the 
river pilots, impeded for years navigation in low water. A. Van 
Santvoord, Esq., President of the Hudson River Day Line, and 
other prominent citizens along the Hudson, brought the subject 
before the State Legislature, and work was commenced in 1863. 
In 1868 the United States Government very properly ( as their 
jurisdiction extends over tide-water ), assumed the work of com- 
pleting the dykes, and they now stretch for miles along the 
banks and islands of the upper Hudson. Here and there along 
our route between Coxsackie and Albany will be seen great 
dredges deepening and widening the river channel. Mr. 
Charles G. Weir, U. S. Engineer, in charge of the Hudson river 



234 THE HUDSON. 

improvements, in a recent report, says that the work of remov- 
ing shoals and other obstructions that are a menace to naviga- 
tion is progressing satisfactorily, and that dredges are at work 
deepening the channel from Coxsackie to the State dam at Troy, 
in accordance with the act of Congress of September 19, 1890, 
which calls for a channel 12 feet deep and 400 feet wide from 
Coxsackie to the foot of Broadway, Troy, and thence 12 feet 
deep and 300 feet wide to the State dam. 

It is estimated by the Board of Engineers that it will cost 
$2,447,906.56, and the contract was let in September, 1892. It 
aslo calls for the removal of 4,620,048 cubic yards of rock. It is 
estimated that it will take four years to complete the work. 

The plan provides for a system of longitudinal dykes to con- 
fine the current sufficiently to allow the ebb and flow of the 
tidal-current to keep the channel clear. These dykes are to be 
gradually brought nearer together from New Baltimore toward 
Troy, so as to assist the entrance of the flood-current and in- 
crease its height. 

The engineers report that the greater part of the material 
carried in suspension in the Hudson river above Albany is be- 
lieved to come from the Mohawk river, and its tributary the 
Schoharie river, while the sands and gravel that form the heavy 
and obstinate bars near Albany and chiefly between Albany 

i 

and Troy, come from the upper Hudson. 

The discharge of the Hudson between Troy and Albany at its 
lowest stage may be taken at about 3,000 cubic feet per second. 
The river supply, therefore, during that stage is inadequate in 
the upper part of the river for navigation, independent of tidal 
flow. 



THE HUDSON. 235 

The greatest number of bars is between Albany and Troy, 
where the channel is narrow, and at least six obstructing bars, 
composed of fine and coarse gravel and coarse and fine sand, are 
in existence. In many places between Albany and Troy the 
navigable depth is reduced to 71 feet by the presence of these bars. 
From Albany to New Baltimore the depths are variable, the 
prevailing depth being 10 feet and over, with pools of greater 
depth separated by long cross-over bars, over which the greatest 
depth does not exceed 9 or 10 feet. Passing many delightful 
homes on the west bank and the mouth of the Norman's Kill 
(Indian name Ta-wa-sentha, place of many dead) and the Con- 
vent of the Sacred Heart, we see Dow's Point on the east and 
above this the — 

Van Rensselaer Place, with its port holes on either side 
of the door facing the river, showing that it was built in trouble- 
some times. It is the oldest of the Patroon manor houses, 
built in 1640 or thereabouts. It has been said that the adaptation 
of the old tune now known as " Yankee Doodle " was made near 
the well in the grounds of the Van Rensselaer Place by Dr. 
Richard Shuckberg, who was connected with the British Army 
when the colonial troops from New England marched into a 
camp at Albany to join the British regulars on their way to 
fight the French. The tune was known in New England before 
the Revolution as " Lydia Fisher's Jig," a name derived from a 
famous lady who lived in the reign of Charles II, and which has 
been perpetuated in the following rhyme : 

Lucy Locket lost her pocket, 

Lydia Fisher found it; 

Not a bit of money in it, 

Only binding 'round it. 



236 THE HUDSON. 

The appearance of the troops called down the derision of 
the British officers, the hit of the doctor became known 
throughout the army, and the song was used as a method of 
showing contempt for the colonials until after Lexington and 
Concord. 

Greenbush and East Albany, on the east side of the river, 
are connected with Albany by two railroad bridges and a car- 
riage bridge . The word is a translation of the old Dutch, and 
was probably a "green-bushed" place in early days. Now 
pleasant residences and villas look out upon the river from the 
near bank and the distant hillsides. These villages are head- 
centre for the employees on the great railroad lines which inter- 
sect at this point. During the French War in 1775, Greenbush 
was a military rendezvous, and in 1812 the United States Gov- 
ernment established extensive barracks, whence troops were 
forwarded to Canada. 

Albany, (144 miles from New York, population 97,120. New 
York Central & Hudson River Railroad, Boston & Albany, 
West Shore, Rensselaer & Saratoga, Albany & Susquehanna, New 
York and Albany Bay Bine and People's Bine. Best Hotel, Delavan 
House.) Its site was called by the Indians, Shaunaugh-ta-da 
(Schenectady) or the Pine Plains. It was next known by the 
early Dutch settlers as " Beverwyck," "William Stadt," and 
" New Orange." The seat of the State Government was trans- 
ferred from New York to Albany in 1798. In 1714, when 100 
years old, it had a population of 3,000, one-sixth of whom were 
slaves. In 1786, it increased to about 10,000. In 1676, the city 
comprised within the limits of Pearl, Beaver and Steuben streets, 
was surrounded by wooden walls with six gates. They were 13 



THE HUDSON. 23? 

feet high, made of timber a foot square. It is said that a portion 
of these walls were remaining in 1812. The first railroad in the 
State and the second in the United States was opened from 
Albany to Schenectady in 1831. The pictures of these old 
coaches are very amusing-, and the rate of speed was only a 
slight improvement on a well-organized stage line. From an 
old book in the State Library we condense the following descrip- 
tion, presenting quite a contrast to the city of to-day : « Albany 
lay stretched along the banks of the Hudson, on one very wide 
and long street, parallel to the Hudson. The space between 
the street and the river bank was occupied by gardens. A small 
but steep hill rose above the centre of the town, on which stood 
a fort. The wide street leading to the fort (now State street) had 
aMarket-Place, Guard-House, Town Hall, and an English and 
Dutch Church, in the centre." A relic of these old days still 
exists in the Van Rensselaer manor-house, deserted and dis- 
mantled ; but even in its desolation, a monument of archi- 
tectural elegance and interesting associations. It is not only 
a valuable relic of the colonial period, but one of the very few 
existing links which connect us with the feudal institutions 
introduced into New York from Holland upwards of 250 years 
ago. The house was erected in 1765-the date in great iron 
letters gracing the outside-and it was so much finer and grander 
and more gorgeous than any other residence of the period that 
it looked like a palace." It has not been inhabited, as the 
Albany Argus says, for many years, although still in the pos- 
session of the Van Rensselaer family. 

Tourists and others will be amply repaid in visiting the new 
Capitol building, at the head of State street. It is open from 



238 THE HUDSON. 

nine in the morning until six in the evening. It is said to be 
larger than the Capitol at Washington, and when completed 
will cost more than any other structure on the American conti- 
nent. The staircases, the wide corridors, the Senate Cham- 
ber, the Assembly Chamber, and the Court of Appeals room, 
attest the wealth and greatness of the Empire State. The 
visitor up State street will note the beautiful and commanding 
spire of "St. Paul." The Cathedral is also a grand structure. 
The population of Albany is now almost 100,000, and its growth 
is due to three causes : First, the capital was removed from New 
York to Albany in 1798. Then followed two great enterprises, 
ridiculed at the time by every one as the Fulton Folly and Gun- 
tori's Ditch — in other words, steam navigation, 1807, and the Erie 
Canal, 1825. Its name was given in honor of the Duke of Al- 
bany, although it is still claimed by some of the oldest inhabit- 
ants that, in the golden age of those far-off times, when the 
good old burghers used to ask for the welfare of their neighbors, 
the answer was "All bonnie," and hence the name of the 
hill-crowned city. 

To condense from H. P. Phelps's careful Hand-book of "Albany 
and the Capitol." In 1614 a stockaded trading-house was erected 
on an island below the city, well defended for trading with the 
Indians. In 1617 another was built on the hill, near Norman's 
Kill. The West Indian Company erected a fort in 1623 near the 
present landing of the Day Line. In 1664 the province fell into 
the hands of the English and the name was changed to Albany. 
In 1686 it was incorporated into a city. It was the meeting 
place of the Constitutional Congress 1654, the proposed Consti- 
tution of which, however, was never ratified. Washington vis- 



THE HUDSON. 239 

ited it in 1783. The Erie Canal was opened in 1825, a rail- 
road to Schenectady in 1832, the Hudson River in 1851 , a con- 
solidated road to Buffalo in 1853, and the Susquehanna Mail- 
road to Binghamton in 1869. A walk of five minutes from 
the steamboat landing - brings the traveler to the Union Depot, 
or the Delaware & Hudson station. Trains for Saratoga and 
the North also meet the day boats at the landing. State 
Street at one time was said to be the widest city thorough- 
fare in the country, after Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. 
The English and Dutch Churches and other public buildings, 
once in the midst of it, but long since removed, account for its 
extra width. The State Capitol has a commanding site at the 
head of State Street. The old Capitol building was completed 
in 1808. The corner-stone of the present building was laid June 
24, 1871, and, although not yet completed, has been occupied 
since January 7, 1879. According to Phelps, " the size of the 
structure impresses the beholder at once. It is 300 feet north 
and south by 400 feet east and west, and with the porticoes will 
cover three acres and seven square feet. The walls are 108 feet 
high from the water-table, and all this is worked out of solid 
granite brought, most of it, from Hallowell, Me. 

The impression produced varies with various persons. One 
accomplished writer finds it " not unlike that made by the photo- 
graphs of those gigantic structures in the northern and eastern 
parts of India, which are seen in full series on the walls of the 
South Kensington, and by their barbaric profusion of ornamenta- 
tion and true magnificence of design give the stay-at-home Briton 
some faint inkling of the empire which has invested his queen 
with another and more high-sounding title. Yet when close at 



240 THE HUDSON. 

hand the building - does not bear out this connection with Indian 
architecture of the grand style ; it might be mere chance that at 
a distance there is a similarity ; or it may be that the smallness 
of size in the decorations as compared to the structure itself 
explains fully why there is a tendency to confuse the eye by the 
number of projections, arches, pillars, shallow recesses, and 
what-not, which variegate the different facades. The confusion 
is not entirely displeasing ; it gives a sense of unstinted riches, 
and so far represents exactly the spirit that has reared the 
pile." 

The best view of the Capitol and of Albany is from the road- 
way leading from East Greenbush, in reference to which the 
English historian, Edward A. Freeman, says : " The American 
city which struck me most was Albany. Rising grandly as it 
does from the noble Hudson, it suggested to me some of the 
ancient cities by the Loire. The general look of the city carried 
me so completely into another part of the world that if any one 
had come up and told me in French, old or new, that the new 
Capitol was Le Chateau de Monseigneur le due d'Albanie, I 
could almost have believed him." 

The Governor's room, the Golden Corridor, the Senate Stair- 
case, the Senate Chamber, the Assembly Chamber, and the 
Court of Appeals room are interesting alike for their architect- 
ural stone work, decorations and general finish. The State Li- 
brary, dating from 1818, contains about 150,000 volumes. The 
Clinton papers, including Andre's documents captured at Tarry- 
town, are the most interesting of many valuable manuscripts. 
Here also are a sword and pistol once belonging to General 
Washington. The Museum of Military Records and Relics con- 



THE HUDSON. 241 

tains over 800 battle flags of State regiments, with several en- 
signs captured from the enemy. Near the Capitol are the State 
Hall and City Hall, and on the right, descending State street, the 
Geological Hall, well worthy an extended visit. The present St. 
Peter's Episcopal Church, third upon the site, is of Schenectady 
blue stone with brown trimmings. Its tower contains ' ' a chime 
of eleven bells and another bell marked 1751, which is used only 
to ring in the new year." Washington Park, consisting of eighty 
acres and procured at a cost of one million dollars, reached by a 
pleasant drive or by electric railway, is a delightful resort. It 
is noted for its grand trees, artistic walks and floral culture. 
Several fine statues are also worthy of mention, notably that of 
Robert Burns, (Charles Calverley, sculptor), erected by money 
left for this purpose by Mrs. McPherson. under the careful and 
tasteful supervison of one of Albany's best-known citizens, Mr. 
Peter Kinnear. A view from Washington Park takes in the 
Catskills and the Helderberg Mountains. 

And now, while waiting to " throw out the plank," which puts 
a period to our Hudson Kiver Division, we feel like congratu- 
lating ourselves that the various goblins which once infested the 
river have become civilized, that the winds and tides have been 
conquered, and that the nine-day voyage of Hendrich Hudson 
and the " Half Moon" has been reduced to the nine-hour system 
of the " New York " and the " Albany." 

Those who have traveled over Europe will certainly appreci- 
ate the quiet luxury of an American steamer ; and this first 
introduction to American scenery will always charm the tourist 
from other lands. No single day's journey in any land or on any 
stream can present such variety, interest, and beauty, as the 



242 THE HUDSON. 

trip of one hundred and forty-four miles from New York to 
Albany. The Hudson is indeed a goodly volume, with its broad 
covers of green lying open on either side ; and it might in truth 
be called a condensed history, for there is no other place in our 
country where poetry and romance are so strangely blended 
with the heroic and the historic, — no river where the waves of 
different civilizations have left so many waifs upon the banks. 
It is classic ground, from the "wilderness to the sea," and will 
always be the poets' corner of our country ; the home of Irving, 
Willis, and Morris, — of Fulton, Morse, and Field, — of Cole, 
Audubon, and Church, — and of scores besides, whose names are 
household words. 



SOURCE OF THE HUDSON. 



ALBANY TO SARATOGA. 

(Delaware & Hudson Railroad.) 

Saratoga Division.— The Saratoga Division of the Dela- 
ware & Hudson Railroad might be said to stand secure on a 
solid tripod, Albany representing one foot, Troy another, and 
Schenectady the third. Travelers by Day Boat, Night Boat, 
or the West Slwre Railroad, take their departure for Saratoga 
from Albany. Most of the through express trains on the Hud- 
son River Railroad go via Troy. Passengers from Buffalo, Roch- 
ester, Syracuse, Utica, and the west, find their nearest route via 
Schenectady. To carry the figure still further, the three sup- 
ports of the tripod all converge toward Saratoga, and there 
unite to support the main standard, with Lake George, Cham- 
plain and the Adirondacks for a picture rack. 

Troy. — (New York Central & Hudson River R. R., Delaware & 
Hudson, Fitchburgh & Central Vermont, Citizens' Line Steamers.) 
To mark the locality of Troy it is necessary to get your bearings. 
If you happen to be in Albany, you can say Troy is six miles 
north of Albany ; but, if you chance to be in Troy, it would be 
safe to say that Albany is six miles south of Troy. It stands at 
the head of tide-water, and is emphatically a live city. If you 
ask its history, it points to its great iron interests, its collar, 

243 



244 THE HUDSON. 

cuff, and various laundry industries, and like the Roman matron, 
says, " These are my jewels." It is located upon a flat, at the 
foot of classically-named hills, Mount Ida and Mount Olympus. 
Two streams, the Poestenkill and the Wynant's Kill, approach 
the river through narrow ravines, and furnish excellent water 
power. In the year 1786 it was called Ferryhook. In 1787, 
Rensselaerwyck. In the fall of 1787 the settlers began to use 
the name of Vanderheyden, after the family who owned a great 
part of the ground where the city now stands. January 9, 1789, 
the freeholders of the town met and gave it the name of Troy. 
The Hudson, the Erie, and the Champlain Canals have con- 
tributed to its growth. The city population is 64,986, but the 
surrounding cities and towns, which have sprung up around it, 
viz., Cohoes, Lansingburg, Waterford, etc., makes it central to 
at least 100,000 people. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 
the oldest engineering school in America, has a national reputa- 
tion. 

The best hotel is the Troy House, corner First and River 
streets, centrally located, among the leading mercantile inter- 
ests and public buildings of the city, within five minutes' walk 
from the Union railroad depot, or within two minutes' walk 
of the landing of the elegant steamers " Saratoga ' and " City of 
Troy." Being handy alike for the tourist or man of business, 
and under the popular management of the owner and proprietor, 
Mr. B. F. Styles, it furnishes a pleasant resting place for one 
en route to Saratoga and the Adirondacks. Passing west from 
Albany or Troy through West Troy, we come to— 

Cohoes, a prosperous manufacturing city, which has grown 
up around one of the finest water powers in the country. The 



THE HUDSON. 245 

name Cohoes is said to signify " the island at the falls." This 
was the division line between the Mahicans and the Mohawks, 
and when the water is in full force it suggests in graceful curve 
and sweep a miniature Niagara. The view from the double- 
truss iron bridge (960 feet in length), looking up or down the 
Mohawk is impressive. 

Passing through Waterford, and Mechanicville, which lies 
partly in the township of Stillwater, with its historic records of 
Bemis Heights and burial place of Ellsworth, the first martyr 
of the civil war, we come to- 
Round Lake, nineteen miles north of Troy, and thirteen miles 
south of Saratoga Springs, near a beautiful sheet of water, three 
miles in circumference, called by the Indians Ta-nen-da-ho-wa, 
which interpreted, signifies Round Lake. 

The gateway at the station seems to open at once into a fairy 
land, which, however, gives vigorous evidence of entertaining 
human beings in the existence of a post-office, a grocery and 
provision stores, a bakery, meat, fish, milk, and vegetable mar- 
kets, also, telegraph and express offices. Private boarding and 
lodging may be obtained in cottages and tents at very reasonable 
rates. We have seen it stated that a cottage, including a lot, 
can be built at Round Lake, accommodating several persons, 
for $500, and pleasant cottages can be rented for $40. 

The drives in the vicinity are most delightful to Saratoga 
Lake, to the Hudson River, to the historic battle-fields of Bemis 
Heights and Stillwater. The air at Round Lake is pure and in- 
vigorating and the grounds are abundantly supplied with pure, 
cool water from living springs upon the high lands of the Asso- 
ciation. 



246 THE HUDSON. 

The Association grounds consist of 200 acres of land, charm- 
ingly situated, and the institution is most flourishing, under the 
able and popular management of Dr. H. C. Farrar. 

Ballston Spa, (thirty-one miles from Albany, population 
4,000), is the county seat of Saratoga. Here- are several well 
known mineral springs, with chemical properties similar to the 
springs of Saratoga. Over ninety years ago Benjamin Douglas, 
father of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, built a log house, near the 
"Old Spring," for the accommodation of invalids and travelers, 
and at one time it looked as if Saratoga would have a vigorous 
rival at her very doors ; but its hotel glory has departed and 
the old "Sans Souci " of the days of Washington Irving is a 
thing of the past. There is a fine avenue between the two vil- 
lages, which makes a popular driveway, running, as it does, near 
the Geyser, Vichy and Spouting Springs. 

Saratoga Springs, (thirty-eight miles north of Albany, one 
hundred and eighty-two miles from New York. Population 
about 13,000). We presume no one will dispute us, when we say 
that this is the greatest watering place of the continent, or of 
the world. Its development has been wonderful, and puts, as it 
were, in large italics, the prosperity of America. Its fifty 
years 1 growth is as marvelous as the growth of New York, Chi- 
cago, or San Francisco. The wooden inns and hotels of 1830, 
which then seemed palatial to the rural people of Saratoga, 
would get lost even in the parlors of the mammoth hotels which 
now line the main street of the village. Chief among these hotels, 
we mention the — 

"United States," a grand and princely building of noble 
frontage with a bright and spacious interior court. We see it 



THE HUDSON. 247 

as we approach the station, with its long line of cottages on one 
side, and its long wing on the other, reaching almost to the rail- 
road track, as if standing with open arms to welcome the tourist 
and traveler. 

This magnificent structure was completed in June, 1874. It 
constitutes one continuous line of buildings, six stories high, over 
fifteen hundred feet in length, containing nine hundred and 
seventeen rooms for guests, and is the largest hotel in the world. 
The architectural appearance is exceedingly elegant and beau- 
tiful. It is Norman in style, and its Mansard roof is embellished 
with pediments, gables, dormer windows and crestings, and 
three large pavilions. 

The building covers and encloses seven acres of ground in the 
form of an irregular pentagon, having a frontage of two hundred 
and thirty-two feet on Broadway, six hundred and fifty-six feet 
on Division street, with " Cottage Wing" on the south side of 
the plaza, extending west from the main front for five hundred 
and sixty-six feet. This wing is one of the most desirable fea- 
tures of this admirably arranged house, as it affords families, 
and other parties, the same quiet and seclusion which a private 
cottage would afford, together with the attention and conveni- 
ence of a first-class hotel. The rooms of this wing are arranged 
in suites of one to seven bedrooms, with parlor and bath-room in 
each suite. Private table is afforded, if desired, and the seclu- 
sion and freedom of a private villa may be enjoyed here, to be 
varied, at will, by the gayer life of the hotel and watering place. 

The main front and entrance are on Broadway, in which is the 
elegant drawing-room, superbly furnished with Axminster car- 
pets, carved walnut and marble furniture, frescoed ceilings, ele- 



248 THE HUDSON. 

gant lace curtains and costly chandeliers and mirrors. The 
room is rich and tasteful in its entire arrangements. Across the 
hall is the ladies* parlor, furnished with exquisite taste ; and 
beyond, at the corner of the Broadway and Division street fronts, 
are the gentlemen's reading-rooms and the business offices of the 
hotel. To the west of the office, in the Division street wing, is 
the dining-hall, fifty-two by one hundred and twelve feet, with 
twenty and one-half feet ceiling. The grand ball-room, one hun- 
dred and twelve by fifty-three feet, with ceilings twenty-six feet 
high, is on the second floor of the Division street wing, and is 
also handsomely decorated. 

In brief, this palatial structure surpasses in grandeur and 
magnitude, any hotel in Saratoga. It was not built in pieces 
and pasted together in scraps, but reared at once in its entirety, 
springing up like Aladdin's Palace, symmetrical and beautiful. 
It is moreover appropriately named, for it is a fit type of the 
growth of our country, and speaks well for a centennial of pros- 
perity under the successful management of Tompkins, Gage & 
Perry, proprietors. 

Tlie American. — We are glad to see the cheerful face of this 
hotel also lighted up with smiles and prosperity. It has one of the 
finest locations in Saratoga, and enters upon its fourteenth suc- 
cessful season, under the management of Mr. Geo. A. Farnham. 
The rooms are entirely refurnished, and 300 guests will be sure 
of comfort, good attention, a fine table, and every convenience 
of a first-class house. One thing is sure, there is no better table 
in Saratoga, and those who go to the "American" return again 
and again. 



THE HUDSON. 249 

Dr. Strong's Sanitarium, established in 1885, is a very 
popular and largely patronized house, on Circular street, one of 
Saratoga's beautiful avenues, and within three minutes' walk of 
the great hotels, Congress Park, Hathorn, Patterson and other 
springs'. It remains open throughout the year, and is justly re- 
garded one of the celebrities of Saratoga. To the public it has 
the aspect of a family hotel, and for those seeking health or rest, 
it is a home and sanatarium, completely equipped with the most 
modern curative appliances, under the management of thor- 
oughly educated physicians. To the feeble and overtaxed, it ex- 
tends, in all seasons, aid, and to the pleasure seekers abundant 
recreation, being just near enough to all the whirl, and just re- 
tired enough for rest, with the table appointments and elegance 
of a first-class hotel. During the past year this institution has 
made extensive improvements and additions. It introduced a 
beautifully decorated reception hall, communicating with an 
elegant drawing-room, and containing an open fire-place, modern 
staircase and passenger elevator. It has also built a Sun Par- 
lor and Promenade on the roof, literally a glass house with a 
tower, through which the elevator runs and lands its passengers 
in the Sun Parlor. This room is furnished with tables, easy 
chairs, magazines, papers, plants, etc. Out of the Sun Parlor, 
toward the east, is an extensive promenade covering the main 
roof of the building. The power of the sun beam, the invigoration 
of the atmosphere free from moisture, and the balmy breeze, 
make the additions great agencies for health, elevation of spirits 
and recreation. One could scarcely imagine a more delightful 
resting place after a heated summer day than the roof prome- 
nade. It has proved a very attractive feature in the summer 



250 THE HUDSON. 

evenings to the young- ladies and gentlemen who throng this 
favorite resort. During the past year Dr. Strong built a large 
annex to his Sanitarium in which he has placed suits of rooms 
with baths, billiard rooms, gymnastic hall, and Turkish and 
Russian baths, which for elegance and completeness have never 
been excelled. The annual croquet and lawn tennis tourna- 
ments each season are greatly enjoyed by the guests of the house. 

The Mount McGregor Eailroad is one of the pleasantest "day 
trips " to be made from Saratoga. Trains leave Saratoga three 
or four times during the day, and the view from the road and 
the mountain is very fine. An art gallery has been established 
on this mountain, and a collection of pictures by American 
artists is on exhibition. Tlie Electric Line to Saratoga Lake is 
also one of the features of the village, and furnishes a most de- 
lightful forenoon or afternoon's outing. 

The Springs. — The most prominent springs in and about 
Saratoga are the Hathorn, the Vichy and the Congress. The 
popularity of the Hathorn is attested by the universal sale of 
its bottled waters throughout the United States. The Vichy is 
also a great favorite. High Rock is one of the few springs in 
the world that has built its own curb stone. 

But in the midst of this throbbing, gay and delightful Sara- 
toga, we must not forget that it was here the fathers of the Re- 
public achieved one of their most decisive victories. The battle 
was fought in the town of Stillwater, at Bemis Heights, two and 
a half miles from the Hudson. The defeat of St. Leger and the 
triumph of Stark at Bennington filled the American army with 
hope. Burgoyne's army advanced September 19th, 1777. The 
battle was sharply contested. At night the Americans retired 



THE HUDSON. 251 

into their camp, and the British held the field. From Septem- 
ber 20th to October 7th the armies looked each other in the face, 
each side satisfied from the first day's struggle that their oppo- 
nents were worthy foemen. The Americans had retaken Ticon- 
deroga and Lake George. Burgoyne had no place to retreat, 
and the lines were slowly but surely closing in around him. 
October 7th Burgoyne commenced the battle, but in half an 
hour his line was broken. He attempted to rally his troops in 
person, but they could not stand before the impetuous charge of 
the Americans. He was compelled to order a full retreat, and 
fell back on the heights above Schuylerville. The Americans 
surrounded him, and he surrendered. It was a decisive victory, 
and cheered the friends of freedom, not only in America, but in 
the English House of Commons. Those desirous of going a few 
centuries further back in history will find their taste fully grati- 
fied at elegant Pompeii on the main street of the village — a re- 
production of the " House of Pansa," buried by Vesuvius, A. D. 
79. It is a most complete and vivid portrayal of the domestic 
life, worship and customs of the Romans. 

In Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester's book, entitled " Historical 
Sketches of Northern New York and the Adirondack Wilder- 
ness," the tourist will find a large and well digested mass of in- 
formation relative to Saratoga and the Adirondack Wilderness. 
In the 23d Chapter we learn that the earliest date in which the 
word Saratoga appears in history is 1684, and was then the name 
of an old hunting ground on both sides of the Hudson. Its in- 
terpretations have been various. Some say ' ' The Hillside Coun- 
try of the Great River ;" others, the place of swift waters, while 
Morgan, in his " League of the Iroquois," says the signification 



252 THE HUDSON. 

of Saratoga is lost. It has occurred to the writer of this Hand- 
book that the old root of the word meaning - "brackish," or 
"bitter," appears also in the English, "sour," in the Swedish, 
" sur," and in German, "sauer ;" being kindred with Sara, or salt 
water. The word "daga" signifies water as seen in Sacan- 
daga, Onondaga, &c, and Saradoga would easily become Sara- 
toga. 

To quote from the superb Guide Book issued by the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company : "Long before the discovery of 
Saratoga's wonderful springs by the whites, the place was 
the resort of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and 
Cayugas, who came thither for the health-giving properties of 
the waters. The first white man to visit the place was Sir 
William Johnson, who, in 1767, was conveyed there by his Mo- 
hawk friends, in the hope that the waters might afford relief 
from the serious effects of a gunshot wound in the thigh, re- 
ceived eight years before in the battle of Lake George, at which 
time his army defeated the French legions under Baron Dieskau. 
It was not until the year 1773, six years after Sir Wm. Johnson's 
initial visit, that the first clearing was made and the first cabin 
erected by Derick Scowten. Owing, however, to his misunder- 
standings with his red neighbors, he shortly afterwards left. A 
year later, George Arnold, from Rhode Island, took possession 
of the vacated Scowten House, and conducted it with some de- 
gree of success for about two years. Arnold was in turn fol- 
lowed by Samuel Norton, who failed to make the venture suc- 
cessful, owing to the outbreak of the Revolution. Norton was 
succeeded in 1783 by his son, who sold out in 1787 to Gideon 
Morgan, who, in the same year, made the property over to Alex- 



THE HUDSON. 253 

ander Bryan. Bryan became the first permanent settler after 
the close of the war. The prosperity of the village began i'n 
1789, with the advent of Gideon Putnam, and has continued al- 
most uninterruptedly, until to-day it has a resident population 
of 13,000 and a summer population of sometimes 60,000, and 
offers more attractions than any watering-place in the world. 

Saratoga is also the most attractive point in the country as a 
gathering place for conventions and large meetings, and, in re- 
sponse to the growing demand for adequate facilities, a splendid 
convention hall, with a seating capacity for five thousand people, 
has recently been erected by the town authorities. It is a strik- 
ing architectural addition to Saratoga's attractions." 



254 THE HUDSON. 

FROM SARATOGA TO THE ADIRONDACKS. 
Adirondack Bailway to North Creek— Stages to Blue Mountain Lake. 

The Adirondack Bailway furnishes one of the pleasantest ex- 
cursions to be made from Saratoga. The traveler passes through 
the romantic and picturesque valley of the Upper Hudson — 
through King's, South Corinth, Jessup's Landing to Hadley, 
(the railroad station for Luzerne, a charming village at the 
junction of the Hudson and the Sacandaga) : then through 
Stony Creek, Thurman, thirty-six miles from Saratoga Springs, 
at the junction of the Schroon and the Hudson; the Glen, 
forty-four miles; Riverside, fifty miles, (for Schroon Lake), 
pleasurable throughout, to North Creek, where "Concord 
coaches " and patent-covered spring buckboards are in wait- 
ing for Blue Mountain Lake— distance about thirty miles, 
through a beautiful romantic country. The road is in thorough 
repair, and the traveler will reach Blue Mountain Lake in time 
for supper. We had the good fortune to make this trip last 
August, and hope to do so at least once a year for the next de- 
cade. Blue Mountain Lake is a noble threshold of the Adiron- 
dacks, and furnishes a delightful route to the lake district. The 
stage line has two or three relays of horses, makes frequent 
changes, and the "drivers" swing one along like a California 
"Jehu" of the Yosemite. 

The "Prospect" accommodates 350 people, and is in every 
particular a first-class hotel. 

The water route from this point is as follows : Through Blue 
Mountain Lake and TJtowana Lake to the outlet, a distance of 



THE HUDSON. 255 

seven miles. A "carry" about two- thirds of a mile in length 
brings the traveler to a fairy-like steamer on Marion River. The 
river trip is twelve miles long to Forked Lake, and we remem- 
ber that it abounded with "water lilies," which were gathered 
by heroic voyagers for fair ones in their charge. 

The Raquette is one of the most delightful of the "braided 
lakes." It has ninety miles of coast, and we understand that the 
name signifies " star-like." The name Utowana signifies " Lake 
of Plenty." 

Arriving at "Forked Lake Carry," one-half mile takes us to 
Fletcher's, or Forked Lake. This is really the first "hotel in 
the woods," and here the traveler gets his first real mountain 
bill of fare. From this point we took a guide to Long Lake. 
The Sagamore accommodates about 200 guests. There is a short 
cut from this point over to the Tupper Lakes, which we can 
commend in every particular, and the tourist can either return 
to Long Lake and continue his route to the Saranacs, or go to 
the Saranacs direct from Lake Tupper. From the Saranacs 
there is a stage to Lake Placid. 

From this point we went to Keene Flats, and stopped with 
" Beede." Some six or eight years ago we visited Beede, on our 
way from Plattsburgh to Mount Marcy, and we were delighted 
to see that he had outgrown the quiet farm-house, and now finds 
himself proprietor of one of the best conducted hotels of the 
Adirondacks, accommodating 100 people. It is a charming and 
healthful spot, and only five miles from the "Lower Ausable 
Pond." These ponds, the "Lower" and "Upper," are unri- 
valed in beauty and grandeur. They lie at the foot of Mount 
Marcy, Haystack, the Gothics, and Mount Bartlett. 



256 THE HUDSON. 



FROM SARATOGA TO LAKE GEORGE. 

The traveler will find trains and excursions to suit his con- 
venience from Saratoga to America's fairest lake. His route 
takes him through Gansevoort and Fort Edward, a nourishing 
village, to Glens Falls, one of the brightest, cleanest, and most 
enterprising villages in our State. Between Fort Edward and 
Glens Falls, about one mile from the Fort Edward station, stood, 
until recently, the tree where Jane McCrea was murdered by the 
Indians during the Revolution. England had secured some of 
the Indian tribes as allies. An officer of the British army had 
gained the affections of Miss McCrea, a young lady of amiable 
character, daughter of a man attached to the royal cause. They 
were to be married. Her lover was called to Canada and sent 
for his intended. Two Indians were to execute the trust. He 
promised the one who would bring her safely a keg of r j.m. 
They quarreled over their charge, and settled the trouble in the 
true Indian way by killing her. This outrage cast just odium 
upon a warfare which could ally itself with barbarians. 

From Glens Falls the tourist proceeds over the well conducted 
Lake George Division, of the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad. 
To quote from " The Northern Tourist," a book which reveals 
the enthusiasm of Mr. J. Bonsall for out-door-life, we find that 
we are in the midst of a historic, as well as romantic region : 
"At Half Way Brook is the site of Fort Amherst, built by Col. 
Payson in 1759, known also as the Seven-Mile Post. Below 
Brown's Half Way House was a stockade fort, built by Major 
West, with two moats and a bastion. A mile beyond was an 



THE HUDSON. 257 

intrenchment built by Col. Foster in the same campaign. 
These were intended to protect the passage of supplies from the 
incursions of the Indians and French. Just beyond the old toll- 
gate is a monument erected to the memory of Col. Ephraim 
Williams, by the graduates of Williams College, of which insti- 
tution he was the founder. Col. Williams was killed at the 
battle of Lake George, which occurred in 1755. Farther on is 
Bloody Pond, so named because the waters of Rocky Brook, its 
outlet, were, at the above-named time, crimsoned with the blood 
of the wounded and dead upon its banks." 

Lake George, called by the French " Lac St. Sacrament," was 
discovered by Father Jacques, who passed through it in 1646, on 
his way to the Iroquois people, by whom he was afterward tor- 
tured and burned. It is thirty-six miles long by three miles 
broad. Its elevation is two hundred and forty-three feet above 
the sea. The waters are of remarkable transparency ; romantic 
islands dot its surface, and elegant villas are erected upon its 
shores. Fort William Henry and Fort Carillon, or Ticonderoga, 
situated at either end of the lake, were the salients respectively 
of the two most powerful nations upon the globe. France and 
England sent great armies, which crossed each other's track 
upon the ocean, the one entering the River St. Lawrence, the 
other finding the harbor of New York. Their respective colo- 
nies sent their thousands to swell the number of trained troops, 
while tribes of red men from the far south and the far north 
were marshalled by civilized genius to meet in hostile array 
upon these waters, around the walls of the forts, and at the base 
of the hills. In 1755, General William Johnson reached Lake 
St. Sacrament, to which he gave the name of Lake George, 



258 THE HUDSON. 

"not only in honor of his Majesty, hut to assert 'his undoubted 
dominion here." 

The village of Caldwell is pleasantly situated at the head of 
the lake. It contains two churches, a court house, and a num- 
ber of pretty residences. Just behind the court house is the bay 
where Montcalm landed his cannon, and where his entrench- 
ments began. It ran across the street, near Brown's Hotel, to 
the rising ground beyond the Episcopal Church. 

Fort William Henry Hotel is the largest and best ap- 
pointed hotel on Lake George. It has a most beautiful and com- 
manding location, and the view from its great piazza is one long 
to be remembered. This piazza is twenty-four feet in width and 
supported by a row of Corinthian columns thirty feet high. The 
outlook from it at all times is little less than enchanting, com- 
manding as it does the level reaches of the lake for miles, with 
a number of the most picturesque islands and promontories. 

About twelve miles from the hotel is Fourteen-mile Island 
which, with a number of others, form "The Narrows." The 
lake here is 400 feet deep, much fishing is done, and in the right 
season hunting parties start out. Black Mountain, the monarch 
of the lake, rises over two thousand feet above its waters (being 
2,661 feet above tide), and from the summit a magnificent view 
may be obtained of Lake Champlain, the Green Mountains, the 
Adirondacks, and the distant course of the Hudson. 

Those who have only a day can make a delightful excursion from 
Saratoga to Caldwell by rail, then through the Lake to Baldwin, 
and thence by rail to Saratoga, or via Baldwin and up the lake 
to Caldwell, and so to Saratoga. But, to get the full beauty of 
this unrivaled lake, the trip should be made with less haste, for 



> 

H 

Q 
H 
O 
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THE HUDSON. 261 

there is no more delightful place in the world to spend a week, a 
month, or an entire summer. Lake George and its immediate 
surrounding's present much to interest the student of history and 
legend ; and to lovers of the beautiful it acknowledges no rivals. 
The elevation and absolute purity of air make it a desirable place 
for the tourist. It is 346 feet above the level of the sea, 247 feet 
above lake Champlain, and is now brought within six hours of 
New York by the enterprise of the Delaware & Hudson Canal 
Co. It is a great question, and we talk it over every time we see 
the genial General Passenger Agent of this enterprising line, 
whether Lake George or Lake Luzerne, in Switzerland, is the 
more beautiful. We were just deciding last summer, on the 
Steamer "Horicon," that Lake George was more beautiful, but 
not so wild, when, as if the spirit of the lake were roused, a great 
black squall suddenly came over the mountains, and, the crys- 
tal Horicon for a few minutes, was as wild and grand as any one 
might desire. We all were glad to see her smile again as she did 
half an hour afterward in the bright sunlight. 

"At its widest point Lake George measures about four miles, 
but at other places it is less than one mile in width. It is dotted 
with islands ; how many we do not know exactly — nobody does ; 
but tradition, which passes among the people of the district for 
history and truth, says there are exactly one island for every 
day in the year, or 365 in all. Whatever their real number they 
all are beautiful, although some of them are barely large enough 
to support a flagstaff , for they all seem to fit into the scene so 
thoroughly that each one seems necessary to complete the charm. 
On either side are high hills, in some places rising gently from 
the shores, and in others beetling up from the surface of the 



262 



THE HUDSON. 



water with a rugged cliff, or time-worn mass of rocks, which 
reminds one of the wild bits of rocky scenery that make up the 
savage beauty of the Isle of Skye. 

Its clearness is something extraordinary. From a small boat, 
in many places, the bottom can be seen, and in others one can 
gaze so far down into its depths that it is impossible to believe 
that the bottom is much farther down. Indeed, so mysteriously 
beautiful is the water that many visitors spend a day in a row- 
boat gazing into it at different points." 




AFLOAT. 



Charles Dudley Warner says: " Bolton, among a host of at- 
tractive spots on the lake, holds, in my opinion, a rank among 
the two or three most interesting points. There is no point of 
Lake George where the views are so varied or more satisfactory, 
excepting the one from Sabbath-day Point. At Bolton the islets 
which dot the surface of the lake whose waters are blue as the 
sea in the tropics, carry the eye to the rosy-tinted range which 



THE HUDSON. 263 

includes Pilot, Buck, and Erebus Mountains, and culminates in 
the stateliness of Black Mountain. Or, looking- northwest, the 
superb masses of verdure on Green Island are seen mirrored on 
the burnished surface of the lake. Behind rises the mighty di- 
viding wall called Tongue Mountain, which seems to separate 
the lake in twain, for Ganouskie, or Northwest Bay, five miles 
long, is in effect a lake by itself, with its own peculiar features." 
The Champlain Transportation Company runs a regular line of 
steamboats the entire length of the lake, making three round 
trips daily, except Sunday. The Horicon is a fine side-wheel 
steamer, 203 feet long and 52 feet wide, and will accommodate, 
comfortably, 1,000 people. 

At Fort Ti the tourist can continue his northern route via the 
Delaware & Hudson to Hotel Champlain, Plattsburgh, Rouse's 
Point, or Montreal, or through Lake Champlain by steamer. 
The ruins of Fort Ti, like old Fort Putnam at West Point, are 
picturesque, and will well repay a visit. 



264 THE HUDSON. 



LAKE GEORGE TO THE ADIRONDACKS. 

The reader who does not visit Lake George may feel that he 
is switched off on a side-track at Fort Edward ; so, coming to 
his rescue, we return again, and renew our northern journey via 
the main line, through Dunham's Basin, Smith's Basin, Fort 
Ann, and Comstock's Landing, to — 

Whitehall, a village of six or seven thousand inhabitants, 
with a romantic situation at the head of Lake Champlain. This 
village is the centre of a large lumber trade, and has a location 
quite like an infant Chicago. 

From this point north the Delaware & Hudson crosses all the 
thresholds for the Adirondacks, and shortens the journey to the 
mountain districts. It passes through five mountain ranges, 
the most southerly, the Black Mountain range, terminating in 
Mt. Defiance, with scattering spurs coming down to the very 
shore of the lake. The second range is known as the Kayade- 
rosseras, the terminations of which lie along the shore north of 
Ticonderoga, culminating in Bulwagga Mountain. The third 
range passes through the western part of Schroon, the northern 
part of Moriah and centre of Westport, ending in Split Rock 
Mountain. The fourth range, the Bouquet range, ends in high 
bluffs on Willsboro Bay. Here the famous Red-Rock Cut is lo- 
cated, and the longest tunnel on the line. 

The fifth range, once known as the Adirondack Range, as it 
includes the most lofty of the Adirondack Mountains, viz. : Mc- 
Intyre, Colden and Tahawas, ends in a rocky promontory known 
as Tremblau Point, at Port Kent. 



THE HUDSON. 265 

No wonder, with these mountain ranges to get through, that 
the subject was agitated year after year, and it was only when 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company put their strong 
shoulder to the wheel, that the work began to go forward. For 
these mountains meant tunnels, and rock cuts, and bridges, and 
cash. Leaving Whitehall, we pass through a tunnel near the 
old steamboat landing, cross a marsh, which must have suggested 
the beginning of the Pilgrim's Progress, for it seemed almost 
bottomless, and are wheeled along the narrow end of the lake, 
still marked by light-houses, where steamers once struggled and 
panted "like fish out of water,'' fulfilling the Yankee's ambition 
of running on a heavy dew. Then winding in and out along the 
shore, we proceed to — 

Ticonderoga, 23 miles from Whitehall. Here terminates 
the first range of the Adirondacks, to which we have already 
referred, viz. : Mount Defiance. Steamers connect with the 
train at this point on Lake Champlain, also with a railroad for 
Lake George. Near the station we get a view of old Fort Ti- 
conderoga, where Ethan Allen breakfasted early one morning, 
and said grace in a brief and emphatic manner. The lake now 
widens into a noble sheet of water ; we cross the Lake George 
outlet, enter a deep rock-cut, which extends to a distance of 
about 500 feet, and reach Crown Point thirty-four miles north of 
Whitehall, with its blast furnaces and branch railroad to Ham- 
mondville mines, some thirteen miles in length, up the valley of 
Put Creek. Passing along the shore of Bulwagga Bay, we 
come to — 

Port Henry, forty miles from Whitehall, where there are 
more blast furnaces and another private railroad, seven miles 



266 THE HUDSON. 

long", to Mineville, when we pass through another cut and a 
tunnel some 300 feet in length. A few miles above this the rail- 
road leaves the lake at Mullen Brook, the first departure since 
we left Whitehall, and we are greeted with cultivated fields and 
a charming- landscape. 

Westport, fifty-one miles from Whitehall, is the railroad 
station for — 

Elizabethtown, the county seat of Essex. It is about eight 
miles distant from the station, and we know of no pleasanter 
village nestled among the mountains. A county consisting 
mostly of mountain scenery could have no happier location for a 
head-centre. Elizabeth town forms a most delightful p-ate- 
way to the Adirondacks either by stage route or pedestrian 
tour. 

A short distance north of Westport we enter the well-culti- 
vated Bouquet Valley, and after a pleasant run we come to 
Wellsboro Falls, where we enter seven miles of rock cutting. 
The road is about 00 feet above the lake, and the cuts in many 
places from 90 to 100 feet high. After leaving Red-Rock cut, 
we pass through a tunnel 600 feet long. Crossing Higby's 
Gorge and rounding Tremblau Mountain, we reach — 

Port Kent, to which Keeseville, an interesting village, con- 
nects itself by a well-managed stage line. There is a good deal 
of progressive life about this pleasant town of 4,000 inhabitants. 
The scenery is charming and romantic on every side. 

Ausable Chasm, is only three miles from the station of 
Port Kent. It is fully ten years since we visited the Chasm, 
but its pictures are still stamped upon our mind clearly and 
definitely— the ledge at Birmingham Falls, the Flume, the Devil's 




BOAT RIDE, AUSABLE CHASM. 



THE HUDSON. 269 

Pulpit, and the boat ride on the swift current. Indeed, the entire 
rock-rift, almost two miles in length, left an impression never 
to be effaced. The one thing- especially peculiar, on account of 
the trend of the rock-layers was the illusion that we were float- 
ing- up stream, and that the river compressed in these narrow 
limits, had "got tired" of finding its way out, until it thought 
that the easiest way was to run up hill and get out at the top. 

Bluff Point. After all this absence the new and superb 
"Hotel Champlain " seemed indeed a vision of beauty. The 
bluff is about 200 feet above the lake and the view from the 
hotel piazza is far reaching and impressive, with the Green 
Mountains on the east and the Adirondacks on the west. The 
hotel grounds comprise the same number of acres as the islands 
of Lake George, 365. The hotel is 400 feet long. We condense 
the following description from the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
Guide-book, which we can heartily endorse from personal visit : 

"The western shore of Lake Champlain forms the margin of 
the most varied and altogether delightful wilderness to be found 
anywhere upon this continent east of the Rocky Mountains. 
The serried peaks to the westward are in plain view from its 
shores, their foot-hills ending in lofty and often abrupt ridges 
where they meet the lake. Three impetuous rivers, the Sara- 
nac, the Salmon and the Ausable, flow down from the cool, clear 
lakes, hidden away in the wildwood, and, breaking through this 
barrier at and in the vicinity of Plattsburgh, contribute not 
only to the lucid waters of Lake Champlain but greatly to the 
picturesque variety of the region. 

Upon Bluff Point, one of the most commanding promontories 
of this ridge, separating the valley of the Salmon River from the 



270 THE HUDSON. 

lake, and three miles south of Plattsbur gh , the large and costly 
Hotel Champlain forms the most commanding feature in an un- 
rivaled landscape, challenging the admiration of travelers both 
by rail and steamer. 

Resolute has been the struggle here with nature, where rocks, 
tangled forest and matted roots crowned the chosen spot ; but 
upon the broad, smooth plateau finally created the Hotel Cham- 
plain has been placed, and all the surrounding forest, its soli- 
tudes still untamed, has been converted into a superb park, 
threaded with drives and bridle paths. At the foot of the grad- 
ual western slope of the ridge the handsome station of Bluff 
Point has been located beside the main line of the Delaware & 
Hudson Bailroad, the chief highway of pleasure and commercial 
travel between New York, Saratoga, Lake George, the Adiron- 
dacks and Canada. 

From the station where the coaches of the hotel await ex- 
pected guests, a winding pike, the very perfection of a road, 
leads up the hill. From the carriage, as it rises to the crest, a 
wondrous outlook to the westward is opened to view. Nearly a 
thousand square miles of valley, lake and mountain are within 
range of the eye or included in the area encircled by visible 
peaks. As the porch of the hotel is reached, the view, enhanced 
by the fine foreground, is indeed beautiful, but still liner is the 
grandeur of the scene from the arches of the tall central dome of 
the house. 

To the southward we see Whiteface, showing, late in spring 
and early in autumn, its coronet of almost perpetual snow ; and 
in a grand circle still more southward we see in succession Mc- 
Intyre, Marcy (both over 5,000 feet high), Haystack, Dix, the 



THE HUDSON. 271 

Gothic peaks, Hurricane and the Giant. This noble sisterhood 
of mountains rises from the very heart of the wilderness, and yet 
the guests at the Hotel Champlain may reach any portion of 
their environment "within a few hours. 

The interior arrangement of the hotel, both in convenience 
and luxurious furnishing, fully bears out the fair promise of the 
tasteful white and gray exterior. There is not a room in the 
house which fails to command, from its windows, a view grand 
and far-reaching in its scope. 

Life at the Hotel Champlain involves a most extraordinary 
variety of diversions. Equestrian expeditions are possible in 
various directions. Pedestrian wanderings are likely to be pop- 
ular. Frequent steamboats upon the lake and local trains upon 
the railroad offer a long list of single-day excursions, each enjoy- 
able in its turn. Much of the best fishing and hunting territory 
of the Adirondack region may be reached in time to enjoy a 
good day's sport and return at night-fall. Lake Placid, the 
most widely known resort in the Adirondack Mountains, is 
peculiarly accessible from Bluff Point. 

The fine equipment and frequent train service of the Dela- 
ware & Hudson between New York and Bluff Point without 
change, by daylight or at night, and the direct connection of 
the same line with the Hudson River steamboats, places this 
resort high upon the list of available summering points in the 
dry and healthful north for families from the metropolis. Travel 
from the west, coming down the St. Lawrence River, or through 
Canada via Montreal, will find Bluff Point easy to reach ; while 
from the White Mountains and New England seashore-resorts 
it is accessible by through trains via St. Albans or Burlington. 



272 THE HUDSON. 

Under the management of Mr. O. D. Seavey, the executive 
head of the princely Hotel Ponce de Leon, at St. Augustine, the 
new Hotel Champlain has promptly taken its place as one of 
the essential points in the complete northern tour." 

It is also the station for the Catholic Summer School of Amer- 
ica. This institution has acquired several hundred acres of land 
fronting on Lake Champlain and adjoining the Hotel Champlain 
grounds on the north. The movement is international in scope, 
and this will be the central point of the Catholic reading circles 
and for the dissemination of literature after the Chautauqua 
plan, and for university extension teaching among the Catholics 
of America. Several hundred thousands of dollars will be ex- 
pended in improving the grounds, erecting suitable buildings 
and making this charming region a summer' gathering place for 
Catholics from all quarters of America. In addition to the plans 
of the association to establish a great center of learning and a 
permanent summer pleasure resort on a vast scale, it may be 
found available in this healthful and lovely spot to provide a 
summer retreat for the various uncloistered orders of the Church. 

The lectures and courses of study are open to all, and tourists 
may avail themselves of the opportunity of hearing lectures from 
the most eminent Catholic scholars on the various important 
questions in the different departments of knowledge that engage 
public attention to-day. 

Plattsburgh. (Four miles from Bluff Point and 168 from 
Albany. A town of 8,000 inhabitants at the mouth of the Sara- 
nac River.) The Fouquet Hotel, conveniently located, under 
the .management of Paul Smith, is near the station. The 
northern part of Lake Champlain offers special attractions to 



THE HUDSON. 273 

camping parties. The shores and islands abound in excellent 
sites. Lake Champlain is also replete with interest to the his- 
torian. The ruins of Fort St. Anne are still seen on the north 
end of the Isle La Mott, built by the French in 1660. Valcour 
Strait, where one of the battles of '76 was fought ; Valcour's Is- 
land, where lovers came from far and near, built air castles, 
wandered through these shady groves for a season or two, and 
then vanished from sight, bankrupt in everything but mutual 
affection ; Cumberland Bay, with its victory, September, 1814, 
when the British were driven back to Canada ; and many other 
points which can be visited by steamer or yacht. 

It is almost thirty years since 1 made my first trip to the 
Adirondacks. I remember the long route to the Saranacs and 
the mountain trails over Tahawas ; but last autumn I stepped 
aboard a well equipped train at Plattsburgh and in five or six 
hours (I forgot the time in the glory of that October day) found 
myself by the bright waters of the Lower Saranac, and instead 
of the old time hotel with its straight verandas, found a hotel 
of architectural grace, the "Ampersand," furnished with the 
most comfortable modern conveniences. The "Ampersand" 
might to-day be called the centre and starting point for all re- 
sorts and camping grounds in the Lake District of the Adiron- 
dacks. Floating about the Saranac Islands of a summer even- 
ing, roaming among forest trees, strolling over to the little 
village one mile distant, and absorbing the rich exhilaration of 
a life of untrammeled freedom, with a perfect hotel, and blazing 
fire-places if the weather happens to be unpleasant, form a 
grand combination, alike for pleasure seekers, and in this busy 
age, seekers after rest. 



274 THE HUDSON. 

Ten years ago the writer prepared an article for the June or 
July Outing, and transcribes it here as it presents fully his idea 
of the Adirondacks. 

The Adirondacks. — The White Mountains are frequently 
called the Switzerland of America ; Lake George and Lake 
Memphremagog are often likened to Loch Katrine, or Loch 
Lomond ; the Hudson is sometimes compared with the Rhine •, 
but it is the glory of the Adirondacks that no traveler has been 
able to liken them to any other part of the earth's surface. The 
Yosemite, on the Pacific slope, and the Adirondacks, on the At- 
lantic, stand alone in their peculiar types of sublimity and beauty. 

The subject of our sketch naturally divides itself into two sec- 
tions, — the eastern, or mountain district, and the western or lake 
district ; the division line being well indicated by the north 
branch of the Hudson and the west branch of the Ausable. The 
lake district empties its waters into the St. Lawrence ; the 
mountain district into Lake Champlain and the Hudson. 

In this article I propose to speak of the mountain district. It 
must not, however, be understood by the reader that the mount- 
ain district has no lakes, or the lake district no mountains ; for 
the " Braided Lakes," west of the Hudson water-shed, reflect in 
their bright mirrors many mountain peaks of no mean altitude ; 
and the traveler over the trails of Tahawas and Skylight will 
drink of the clear waters of Lakes Avalanche and Colden, of 
Lakes Henderson and Ausable. 

It is not my purpose to talk of the Adirondacks as a health 
resort, although its pine, hemlock and fir-balsam forests make it 
unrivaled as a sanitarium; nor to consider its great mineral 
resources, but simply to indicate some of its principal features of 



THE HUDSON. 275 

beauty, its general points of attraction, and the best way of 
reaching them. 

As it is my purpose to make this a practical article, — that is, 
to convey accurate information to persons unfamiliar with this 
mountain district, — it may perhaps be well to indicate briefly 
our first trip over Tahawas, just ten years ago, here and there 
marking the changes which I noted last summer. 

We (the Tahawas Club) took the cars one bright August 
morning from Plattsburgh to Ausable Forks, a distance of some 
twenty miles, hired a team to Beede's, the terminal point of 
civilization, some thirty miles distant from the " Forks ; " took 
dinner at Keene, and pursued our route up the beautiful valley 
of the Ausable. Beede's was then merely a farm-house, and as 
the " house" was full, we camped in the barn. My last visit pre- 
sented a large and commodious hotel, with pleasant rooms and 
wide veranda, in cheerful contrast to the first entertainment. 

From this point we visited Roaring-Brook Falls, some four 
hundred feet high, which we remember as a very beautiful 
waterfall in the evening twilight. The next morning we 
started, bright and early, for the Ausable Ponds. Four miles of 
wood-road, smoothed recently into a very comfortable carriage 
road, brought us to the Lower Ausable. The historic guide, 
"old Phelps," rowed us across the Lower Lake, pointing out, 
from our slowly moving and heavily laden scow, " Indian Head " 
on the left, and the " Devil's Pulpit" on the right, lifted about 
eight hundred feet above the level of the lake. "Phelps" 
remarked with quaint humor, that he was frequently likened to 
his Satanic Majesty, as he often took clergymen "up thar.', 
The rocky walls of this lake rise from one thousand to fifteen 



276 THE HUDSON. 

hundred feet high, in many places almost perpendicular. A 
large eagle soared above the cliffs, and circled in the air above 
us ; but no one in the party had the rashness to shoot at it. In 
fact we had fired most of our ammunition off the day previous at 
squirrels on the fences, without grazing a hair, or scarcely . 
frightening the lively quadrupeds. 

After reaching the southern portion of the Lake, a trail of a 
mile and a quarter leads to the Upper Ausable — to our minds, 
the gem of the Adirondacks. This lake, over two thousand 
feet above the tide, is surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains 
Our camp was on the eastern shore, and I can never forget the 
sun-set view, as rosy tints lit up old Skylight, the Haystack 
and the Gothics ; nor can I ever forget the evening songs from 
a camp-fire across the lake, or the "Bear story " told by Phelps, 
a tale never really finished, but made 'classic and immortal by 
Stoddard, in his spicy and reliable hand-book to the North Woods. 

The next morning we rowed across the lake and took the 

Bartlett trail, ascending Haystack, some five thousand feet high, 

just to get an appetite for dinner ; our guide encouraging us on 

the way by saying- that there never had been more than twenty 

people before "on that air peak." In fact, there was no trail, 

and in some places it was so steep that we were compelled to go 

up on all fours ; or as Scott puts it more elegantly in the " Lady 

of the Lake : " 

"The foot was fain 

Assistance from the hand to gain." 
The view from the summit well repaid the toil. We saw Slide 
Mountain, near by to the north, and Whiteface far beyond, per- 
haps twenty-five miles distant ; northeast, the Gothics ; east, 
Saw-teeth, Mt. Colvin, Mt. Dix, and the Lakes of the Ausable. 



THE HUDSON. 277 

To the southeast, Skylight ; northwest, Tahawas, still called by 
some Mt. Marcy. The descent of Haystack was as easy as 
Virgil's famous "Descensus Averni.'' "We went down in just 
twenty minutes. The one that reached the bottom first simply 
possessed better adaptation for rolling. 

One mile from the foot of Haystack brought us to Panther 
Gorge Camp, appropriately named, one of the wildest spots in 
the Adirondacks. We remained there that night and slept 
soundly, although a dozen of us were packed so closely in one 
small camp that no individual could turn over without dis- 
arranging the whole mass. Caliban and Trinculo were not more 
neighborly, and Sebastian, even sober, would have been fully 
justified in taking us for " a rare monster '' with twenty legs. 

The next morning we ascended Tahawas, but saw nothing 
save whirling clouds on its summit. Twice since then we have 
had better fortune, and looked down from this mountain peak, 
five thousand three hundred and forty-four feet above the sea, 
upon the loveliest mountain landscape that the sun ever shone 
upon. We went down the western slope of Tahawas, through a 
driving rain, to Camp Colden, where, with clothes hung up to 
dry, we looked like a party of New Zealanders preparing dinner, 
hungry enough, too, to make an orthodox meal of each other. 
The next day the weather cleared up, and we made a trip of 
two miles over a rough mountain trail to Lake Avalanche, whose 
rocky and precipitous walls form a fit christening bowl, or bap- 
tistery-font for the infant Hudson. 

Returning to Camp Colden and resuming our western march, 
two miles brought us to Calamity Pond, where a lone monument 
marks the spot of David Henderson's death, by the accidental 



278 THE HUDSON. 

discharge of a pistol. Five miles from this point brought us to 
the " Deserted Village," or the Upper Adirondack Iron Works, 
with houses and furnaces abandoned, and rapidly falling into 
decay. Here we found a pleasant hotel and cordial welcome. 

Had I time to picture to you this level, grass-grown street, 
with ten or fifteen square box-looking houses, windowless, empty 
and desolate ; a school-house with its long vacation of twenty- 
three years ; a bank with heavy shutters and ponderous locks, 
whose floor, Time, the universal burglar, had undermined ; two 
large furnaces with great rusty wheels, whose occupation was 
gone forever ; a thousand tons of charcoal, untouched for a 
quarter of a century ; thousands of brick waiting for a builder ; 
a real haunted house, whose flapping clap-boards contain more 
spirits than the Black Forests of Germany — a village so utterly 
desolate, that it has not even the vestige of a graveyard — if I 
could picture to you this village, as it appeared to me that weird 
midnight, lying so quiet, 

" under the light of the solemn moon," 
you would realize as I did then, that truth is indeed stranger 
than fiction, and that Goldsmith in his " Deserted Village" had 
not overdrawn the description of desolate Auburn. 

By special request, we were permitted to sleep that night in 
the Haunted House, and no doubt we listened to the first crack- 
ling that the old fire-place had known for years Many bedsteads 
in the old houses were still standing, so we only needed bedding 
from the hotel to make us comfortable. As we went to sleep we 
expressed a wish to be interviewed in the still hours of the 
night by any ghosts or spirits who might happen to like our 
company ; but the spirits must have been absent on a visit that 
evening, for we slept undisturbed until the old bell, suspended 



THE HUDSON. 279 

in a tree, rang out the cheery notes of "trout and pickerel." 
We understand that the Haunted House from that night lost its 
old-time reputation, and is now frequently brought into requisi- 
tion as an " Annex," whenever the hotel or " Club House," as it 
is now called, happens to be full. The " Deserted Village " is 
rich in natural beauty. Lakes Henderson and Sanford are near 
at hand, and the lovely Preston Ponds are only five miles distant. 

Resuming our march through Indian Pass, under old Wall- 
Face Mountain, we reached a comfortable farm-house at sunset, 
near North Elba, known by the name of Scott's. The next 
morning we visited John Brown's house and grave by the old 
rock, and read the beautiful inscription, "Bury me by the Old 
Rock, where I used to sit and read the word of God." 

From this point we went to Lake Placid, engaged a lad to row 
us across the lake— some of our party had gone on before— and 
strapped our knapsacks for another mountain climb. We were 
fortunate in having a lovely day, and from its sparkling glacier- 
worn summit we could look back on all the mountains of our 
pleasant journey, and far away across Lake Champlain to Mount 
Mansfield and Camel's Hump of the Green Mountains, and 
farther still to the faint outlines of Mount Washington. We 
reached Wilmington that night, drove the next morning to 
Ausable Forks, and took the cars for Plattsburgh. The ten days' 
trip was finished, and at this late hour I heartily thank the 
Tahawas Club of Plattsburgh for taking me under their gener- 
ous care and guidance. We took Phelps, our guide, back with 
us to Plattsburgh. When he reached the " Forks," and saw the 
cars for the first time in his life, he stooped down and, examin- 
ing the track, said, " What tarnal little wheels." I suppose he 



280 



THE HUDSON. 



concluded that if the ordinary cart had two large wheels, that 
real car wheels would resemble the Rings of Saturn. He saw 
much to amuse and interest him during his short stay in Platts- 
burgh, but after all he thought it was rather lonesome, and 




INDIAN HEAD. 

gladly returned to his lakes and mountains, where he slept in 
peace, with the occasional intrusion of a " Bar " or a " Painter." 
He knew the region about Tahawas as an engineer knows his 
engine, or as a Greek Professor knows the pages of his lexicon. 
He had lived so closely with nature that he seemed to under- 



THE HUDSON. 281 

stand her gentlest whispers, and he had more genuine poetry in 

his soul than many a man who chains weak ideas in tang-led 
metre. 

Since that first delightful trip I have visited the Adirondack^ 
many times, and I hope this summer to repeat the excursion. 
To me Tahawas is the grand centre. It remains unchanged. In. 
fact, the route I have here traced is the same to-day a & s then. 
Even the rude camps are located in the same places, with the 
exception that the trail has been shortened over Tahawas, and 
a camp established on Skylight. With good guides the route is 
not difficult for ladies in good health-say sufficient health to 
endure half a day's shopping. Persons contemplating the 
mountain trip need blankets, a knapsack, and a rubber cloth or 
overcoat ; food can be procured at the hotels or farm houses. 

In this hasty sketch I have had little space to indulge in pic- 
ture-painting. I passed Bridal- Veil Fall without a reference. I 
was tempted to loiter on the banks of the Feld-spar and the 
bright Opalescent, but I passed by without even picking a pebble 
from the clear basins of its sparkling cascades. I passed the 
"tear of the clouds," four thousand feet above the tide-that 
fountain of the Hudson nearest to the sky, without being beguiled 
into poetry. I have not ventured upon a description of a sunrise 
view from the summit of Tahawas, of the magic effect of light 
above clouds that clothe the surrounding peaks in garments 
wrought, it seems, of softest wool, until mist and vapor dissolve 
in roseate colors, and the landscape lies before us like an open 
book, which many glad eyes have looked upon again and again. I 
have left it for your guides to tell you, by roaring camp-fires, 
long stories of adventure in trapping and hunting, of wondrous 



282 THE HUDSON. 

fishes that grow longer and heavier every season, although cap- 
tured and broiled many and many a year ago — trout and pickerel 
literally pickled in fiction, served and re-served in the piquant 
sauce of mountain vocabulary. In brief, I have kept my imagi- 
nation and enthusiasm under strict control. But, after all, the 
Adirondacks are a wonderland, and we, who dwell in the Hud- 
son and Mohawk valleys, are happy in having this great Park of 
Nature's making at our very doors. 

It has charms alike for the hunter, the angler, the artist, the 
writer, and the scientist. Let us rejoice, therefore, that the 
State of New York is waking at last to the fact, that these 
northern mountains were intended by nature to be something 
more than lumber ranches, to be despoiled' by the axe, and 
finally revert to the State for " taxes" in the shape of bare and 
desolate wastes. Nor can the most practical legislator charge 
those, who wish to preserve the Adirondack Woods, with idle 
sentiment ; as it is now an established scientific fact that the 
rainfall of a country is largely dependent upon its forest land. If 
the water supply of the north were cut off, to any perceptible 
degree, the Hudson, during the month of July and August, 
would be a mere sluice of salt water from New York to Albany ; 
and the northern canals, dependent on this supply, would 
become empty and useless ditches. Our age is intensely practi- 
cal, but we are fortunate in this, that so far as the preservation 
of the Adirondacks is concerned, utility, common sense, and the 
appreciation of the beautiful are inseparably blended. 

To those persons who do not desire long mountain jaunts, who 
simply need some quiet place for rest and recuperation, I would 
suggest this : Select some place near the base of these clustered 




AN ADIRONDACK CAMP FIRE. 



THE HUDSON. 285 

mountains, like the tasty Adirondack Lodge at Clear Pond, only 
seven miles from the summit of Tahawas, or Beede's pleasant 
hotel, high and dry above Keene Flats, near to the Ausable 
Ponds, or some pleasant hotel or quiet farm-house in the more 
open country near Lake Placid and the Saranacs. But I proph- 
esy that the spirit of adventure will come with increased 
strength, and men and women alike will be found wandering off 
on long excursions, sitting about great camp-fires, ay, listening 
like children to tales which have not gathered truth with age. 
If you have control of your time you will find no pleasanter 
months than July, August and September, and when you return 
to your firesides with new vigor to fight the battle of life, you 
will feel, I think, like thanking the writer for having advised 
you to go thither. 

I have written in this article the Indian name, Tahawas, in 
the place of Mt. Marcy, and for this reason : There is no justice 
in robbing the Indian of his keen, poetic appreciation, by chang- 
ing a name, which has in itself a definite meaning, for one that 
means nothing in its association with this mountain. We have 
stolen enough from this unfortunate race, to leave, at least, 
those names in our woodland vocabulary that chance to have a 
musical sound to our imported Saxon ears. The name Tahawas 
is not only beautiful in itself, but also poetic in its interpretation 
— signifying " I cleave the clouds." Coleridge, in his glorious 
hymn, "Before sunrise in the vale of Chamouni," addresses 

Mount Blanc : 

"Around thee and above 
Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black — 
An ebon mass. Methinks thou piercest it. 
As with a wedge/ " 



286 THE HUDSON. 

The name or meaning of Tahawas was never made known to 
the great English poet, who died fifty years ago. Is it not re- 
markable that the untutored Indian, and the keenest poetic 
mind which England has produced for a century, should have 
the same idea in the uplifted mountains ? There is also another 
reason why we, as a State, should cherish the name Tahawas. 
While the Sierra Nevadas and the Alps slumbered beneath the 
waves of the ocean, before the Himalayas or the Andes had 
asserted their supremacy, scientists say, that the high peaks of 
the Adirondacks stood alone above the waves, " the cradle 
of the world's life ;" and, as the clouds then encircled the vast 
waste of water, Tahawas then rose — "Cleaver" alike of the 
waters and the clouds. 



THE HUDSON. 287 



DELAWARE AND HUDSON RAILROAD. 

Susquehanna Division.— There are few railroads in our 
country that possess for so many miles suchvariety and interest 
as the Susquehanna Division of the Delaware & Hudson. All the 
way from Albany to Bing-hamton the hills and valleys, the 
streams, rivulets, and rivers form a succession of beautiful land- 
scapes, framed in the moving- panorama of a car window. The 
railroad follows the valleys of three streams — the Schoharie, the 
Cobleskill, and the Susquehanna. 

Leaving- Albany we pass through the little villag-es and 
stations of Adamsville, Slingerlands, New Scotland, Guilderland, 
Knowersville, Duanesburgh, Quaker Street, Esperance, and 
come to Central Bridge, thirty-six miles from Albany, the junc- 
tion with the branch road for Schoharie Court House and 
Middleburgh. Schoharie village, the county seat, is situated on 
Schoharie Flats. First settlement made in 1711. Population 
about fifteen hundred. The old stone church, erected in 1772, is 
now used as an arsenal. Three miles from Central Bridge, or 
thirty-nine miles from Albany, is the celebrated — 

Howe's Cave, discovered on the 22d May, 1842, by Lester 
Howe. In interest and extent it is second only to the great 
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, and presents, in truth, a new 
world of beauty, with arches and walls reaching away for miles, 
of which perhaps the half is only discovered. 

Cobleskill, a pleasant and nourishing village is the next sta- 
tion, forty-five miles from Albany. This rich and fertile valley 
was called by the Indians Ots-ga-ra-ga. This is the junction of 



288 THE HUDSON. 

the Clierry Valley Branch, which passes through Hyndsville, 
Seward and Sharon Springs. 

Sharon. Spring's, once the rival of Saratoga, is located in 
a valley on a hill. The streets are well shaded, and the Sulphur 
Water is well known for its medicinial qualities. Returning to 
Cobleskill, we pursue our route westward on the main line of 
the Albany & Susquehanna, through Richmondville, lying in a 
valley on our left, East Worcester, Worcester, Schenevus and 
Maryland, to the junction of the Cooperstown & Susquehanna Vat- 
ley Railroad, for — 

Cooperstown, one of the pleasantest villages in New York, 
and one of the classic points of our country. It is situated on 
the shores of Otsego, a beautiful lake worthy of being the fount- 
ain head of the bright-flowing Susquehanna. The lake is 1,200 
feet above the sea. Like Mahopac, it is literally surrounded 
with beauty, and like Irvington or Tarrytown, Cooperstown is 
one of the literary Meccas of our country, and, by all means, the 
place to read the works of Cooper. 

Richfield Spring's. — The route to this popular resort, via 
Cooperstown and Otsego Lake, is one of the most charming, ro- 
mantic, and delightful of any trip designated in our guide, and 
the village and surroundings of Richfield are worthy of the in- 
creasing tide of visitors. Of course, persons in a hurry will take 
a drawing-room coach at the New York Central depot, via Utica, 
and arrive at Richfield Springs in eight hours; but a little 
steamboating and coaching — ten miles, via the Natty Bumppo 
steamer and six or seven miles by stage — give variety to the 
route. Richfield Springs is situated on an elevated plateau, 
1,700 feet above tide-water, and has all the requisites of health 




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THE HUDSON. 289 

and beauty, surrounded by mountains and lakes on every 
hand. 

Canadarago Lake is about three-fourths of a mile directly 
south from the Springs, five miles long-, and one and a half 
miles wide, surrounded by wood-covered mountain ranges, and 
abounding in excellent fish. The drives around and to the dif- 
ferent lakes that gem the mountains, and along the streams that 
braid the valleys, often detain the casual visitor ; for Mr. Seward 
expressed something besides poetry in prose in his oration of 
July 4th, 1840, when he said : "I have desired to see for myself 
the valleys of Otsego, through which the Susquehanna extends 
his arms and entwines his fingers with the tributaries of the 
Mohawk, as if to divert that gentle river from its allegiance to 
the Hudson." 

Returning to Cooperstown Junction, our route takes us south- 
west through Colliers and Emmon's to Oneonta, one of the most 
stirring villages on the route. The next station is Otsego. 
From this point stages connect with the pleasant village of 
Franklin; passing through Well's Bridge, Unadilla, Sidney, 
(with its branch road to Delhi), Afton, and Harpersville, we 
come to the Tunnel, 127 miles from New York. Then passing 
through Osborn Hollow and Port Crane, we arrive at Bingham- 
ton, completing the equilateral triangle — New York, Albany, 
and Binghamton. It is a flourishing city, and has railway con- 
nection with the Erie, the Delaware, Lackawanna <& Western, and 
Syracuse & Binghamton Bailways. 



290 THE HUDSON. 



ALBANY TO NIAGARA FALLS. 

New York Central & Hudson River Railroad.— Taking 

the great four-tracked New York Central for the Adirondacks 
the Thousand Islands, and the Lakes of Central New York, we 
pass through the lumber district of Albany (one of the largest of 
our Eastern markets), and, inclining to the west, mount steadily 
a slope, which in early days of "railroading" was surmounted 
by a stationary engine. Passing through West Albany and 
Karner, we reach an old-fashioned, quiet town, seat of Union 
College — 

Schenectady, ( 17 miles from Albany, population 15,000), 
where connections are made from Troy, Cohoes, Ballston and 
Saratoga. Here we cross the Mohawk, which keeps us company 
for a hundred miles through Hoffmans, Crane's Village, Amster- 
dam, Aikens, Tribe's Hill, Fonda, Yosts, Sprakers, Palatine 
Bridge, Fort Plain, St. Johnsville, East Creek, Little Falls, 
Herkimer, Ilion, Frankfort, to Utica. At Fonda connection is 
made with Johnstown, Gloversville, Mayfield and Northville, on 
the Sacandaga, whose poetic name reminds us of a charming 
walk made a few years ago from Lucerne, along its banks to 
Lake Pleasant. At Little Falls the Mohawk, confined in its nar- 
row channel, presents to the traveler a series of picturesque 
views. East of Little Falls, the Mohawk Indians once had a 
village known as Indian Castle. The first patent granted in the 
Mohawk Valley was to Captain Van Slyck, of Schenectady — a 
gift of the tribe. In 1723 the great immigration of the Pala- 
tines occurred, and from that time their lands were parcelled 



THE HUDSON. 291 

out until at last they had no abiding place. It will be remem- 
bered that they were allies of the English, fighting under Sir 
William Johnson, who had his home at Johnstown. 

Herkimer. A branch of the Adirondack Division of the 
New York Central, used as a local line, connects this village with 
Trenton Falls, Prospect, and Remsen, but the main line is via — 

Utica, (95 miles from Albany, population 46,608), the first 
express station on the New York Central, (Bagg's Hotel, near the 
station, the most convenient and best). Twenty-eight miles 
over the Rome and Watertown and Ogdensburgh line brings us to 
Remsen. Continuing our journey we come to Honedaga and 
crossing Blue River reach White Lake at the blue dotted 
portal of the western district of the Adirondacks. Otter Lake 
and McKeever stations are soon passed and we come to — 

Fulton Chain Station, (58 miles from Herkimer), " Located 
in Arnold's Clearing (John Brown's tract), near the site of the 
Old Forge, and about one and a half miles from the Old Forge 
Steamboat landing, where connection is made with steamers 
for the head of Fourth Lake, passing through First, Second, 
Third and Fourth Lakes of the Fulton Chain. Fourth Lake is 
one of the largest bodies of Adirondack waters, and certainly 
one of the prettiest. The popular route to Raquette, Blue 
Mountain and Long Lakes is via Fulton Chain. After leaving 
the steamer at the head of Fourth Lake, the tourist is taken in 
small boats to the head of Fifth Lake, where a short carry is 
made, when the boat is again launched at the foot of Sixth Lake, 
and used to the head of Seventh, where another carry of less 
than a mile is made to Eighth (a gem). Again the boat is used 
to the head of Eighth Lake, another carry to Brown's tract inlet, 



292 THE HUDSON. 

and thence by boat to the Raquette. The distance from Old 
Forge to the head of Fourth Lake is about ten miles ; through 
to Raquette Lake about 25 miles. A small steamer plies on 
Raquette Lake and through Marion River, connecting at Bas- 
sett's Carry with another small steamer, running through Uto- 
wana and Eagle Lakes to Blue Mountain Lake, one of the most 
attractive in the Adirondacks, having an elevation of 1,801 feet 
and excellent hotel accommodations. The same may also be 
said of Raquette Lake ; and along the Fulton Chain will be 
found many excellent hotels and camping places. 

From Raquette Lake it is easy to reach Forked Lake and 
Long Lake, the trip being made in small boats. 

From Fulton Chain Station the line of the railway still fol- 
lows the north branch of the Moose River, and 69 miles from 
Herkimer we reach Big Moose Station. Nine miles north of 
Big Moose is located a stopping place called Beaver River. 

Near Beaver River Station we enter Ne-ha-sa-ne Park, the 
private preserve of Dr. Webb. Little Rapids, Lake Lila and 
Ne-ha-sa-ne are stations for the personal use of Dr. Webb, being 
located within Ne-ha-sa-ne Park. 

One hundred miles from Herkimer is the station called Horse- 
shoe Pond. 

After leaving Horseshoe Pond the railway runs northward close 
to Pleasant Lake, and swinging around Arab Mountain takes an 
easterly course. At a point near where the turn is made is 
Childwold, which is the station for Childwold Park and Gales 
Pond View House, on Catamount Pond. 

Six miles east of Childwold the railway crosses the foot of Ra- 
quette Pond. 



THE HUDSON. 293 

One hundred and fourteen miles from Herkimer is Tupper 
Lake Junction, the station for Tupper Lake village, and also 
connecting point with the Northern Adirondack Railroad. 

Beyond Tupper the line runs northeast, passing close to Little 
Wolfe Pond, a short distance from Big Wolfe Pond, and between 
Mosquito and Rollins Pond past Fleetwood Pond and not far 
from Long Pond, close to Turtle and Hoel ponds. 

We next come to Saranac Inn Station. About one mile dis- 
tant is the Saranac Inn, at the head of Upper Saranac Lake. 
Steamers ply between Saranac Inn and the foot of the lake. 

Big Clear Pond and Lake Clear stations are next reached. The 
Saranac branch leaves the main line at Lake Clear, passing 
southeast, crossing Colby Lake, and terminating at Saranac 
Lake, a distance of 137 miles from Herkimer. This is the larg- 
est village within the limits of the Adirondack region, and a 
famous refuge for invalids. 

At a little over a mile from the village is Lower Saranac Lake. 

Returning to the main line at Lake Clear, we travel north- 
ward to Paul Smith's, 137 miles from Herkimer. From this sta- 
tion there is an excellent carriage road to the old and well- 
known resort, "Paul Smith's Hotel," about three and a half 
miles distant, and located on lower St. Regis Lake. 

Four miles east of Paul Smith's Station is the village of 
Bloomingdale, having a population of about 600. 

Rainbow Lake Station is two miles north of Paul Smith's Sta- 
tion. The railway passes within a short distance of Rainbow 
Lake and Wardner Pond, both noted fishing grounds. 

The next stopping place is Lake Kushaqua and from here 
north the line of the railway runs along the eastern side of 



294 THE HUDSON. 

Loon Lake Mountain to Loon Lake Station, 148 miles from 
Herkimer. 

From Loon Lake the Adirondack division takes a northerly 
course through the forrest, passing Wolfe and Plumadore ponds, 
then turns to the northwest and follows the Salmon River on 
the west side, crossing - to the east at Mountain View. 

From here we proceed across a long level plateau, with mount- 
ains on each side, until Ringville is reached. Owl's Head, 
Branch Pond and Debar Mountains are in plain view from here. 
From this point on the grade gradually descends, the road 
swinging in closely to and finally coming out high up on the 
eastern side of Salmon River Valley, where we have a view of 
great beauty and grandeur. Soon the buildings of Malone come 
in sight, the terminus of the Adirondack Division proper, and 
its connecting point with the St. Lawrence & Adirondack Rail- 
road, which runs north to Valleyfield, crosses the St. Lawrence 
River, and connects at Coteau with the Grand Trunk Railway lor 
Montreal and the Canada Atlantic Railway for Ottawa." Return- 
It will also be remembered that the Rome, Wateiiown & Ogdens- 
burgh Railroad connects Utica with the St. Lawrence, passing 
through Trenton Falls, a dream of beauty framed in everlasting 
rock, Lowville, one of the most beautiful villages in northern 
New York, Carthage, with its celebrated water power seventy- 
four miles from Utica, Watertown, beautifully situated and taste- 
fully laid out to Clayton and Alexandria Bay. New York State is 
singularly favored in romantic, grand, and picturesque scenery. 
The St. Lawrence is one of the few rivers in the world worthy of 
an association with the Hudson. It combines many features of 
attraction. From Clayton to Alexandria Bay the picturesque 
islands present features not to be found on any other stream. 



THE HUDSON. 295 

Some of the islands are miles in length ; others are hardly large 
enough to support a colony of shrubs. Many of them are 
adorned by beautiful summer residences. Three or four belong 
to religious and other associations. On Wells Island two or 
three societies have their summer home — that known as 
"Thousand Island Park," being the largest. 

Returning to Utica we resume our western route, passing 
through Oneida, Chittenango and Manlius to — 

Syracuse, (population 91,994), 148 miles from Albany, the 
most nourishing and enterprising city in Central New York. 
We are now in what might be called the Western Lake District. 
Oneida Lake having been passed near Oneida and Canastota, 
we have Cazenovia Lake to the southeast, Lake Skeneateles to 
the southwest, Auburn and Owasco, Cayuga and Seneca to the 
west, Canandaigua Lake being the most western of the system. 
At Syracuse connection is made with Oswego. ( Best hotel the 
Vanderbilt). From Syracuse what is known as the old road 
takes one via Auburn, Cayuga and the Lake country, while the 
main line passes through Clyde and Lyons direct to — 

Rochester, (228 miles from Albany, population 144,834), 
the finest city of Western New York, and in many particulars, 
the finest in the State. It is now especially attractive to the 
tourist, for it is the happy possessor of one of the most superb 
hotels on the continent — the new Powers Hotel. We doubt if 
there is between the two oceans a more complete and attractive 
hotel, when we take into account the Powers' Block, the Powers' 
Hotel, and the Powers' Art Gallery, so connected and arranged 
that they are practically one building. From Rochester, our 
route takes us to — 



296 THE HUDSON. 

Niagara Falls, (Hotels, Cataract House, International and 
the Prospect), via Buffalo, the Empire State's western metropo- 
lis, or direct, without change. During the last few years the 
surroundings of the Falls have been greatly improved on the 
American side, and a fine park enclosed, and laid out in walks. 
It is secure, even for children and absent-minded lovers. The 
walled battlements present safe standpoints which command the 
finest views. 

The American Fall (900 feet across, 164 feet high) is only a 
short distance from the village. We have seen pictures of these 
Falls, from Church's masterpiece to the hastily engraved cut of 
a guide-book. We all have an idea how the Falls look, but they 
never speak to us until we have gazed over that deep abyss, 
and up the stream which ever rushes on, like an army to battle, 
and down the crowded chasm, where the black waters have 
worn their passage, through the silent, unknown centuries. 
One-eighth of a mile below these Falls is the new Suspension 
Bridge, the longest in the world — 1300 feet in length, the towers 
100 feet high, and cables 1800 feet long. Goat Island, the 
natural Central Park of the Falls, is connected with the Ameri- 
can side by a bridge. The area of the island is about sixty 
acres. The Cave of the Winds, with its magnificent curtain of 
changing beauty, the Rainbow, and the Whirlpool Rapids, 
reached by the Double Elevator. On the Canada side the prin- 
cipal points of interest are Table Rock and the broad Causeway. 

Burning Spring is about a mile above Table Rock, near the 
river edge. Not far from this the battle of Chippewa was 
fought, July 5, 1814. And also, a mile and a half from the falls, 
is the battle ground of Lundy's Lane. Many writers have 



THE HUDSON. 297 

attempted to describe Niagara, but in every description there 
is something lacking. We can give its dimensions, its height 
and breadth, and point out the places to be seen ; but there is a 
Unity about Niagara which can only be felt. It makes one wish 
that David could have seen it, and added a new chapter to the 
Psalms. 

What a wonderful State ! The "Empire" in scenery as in 
wealth and commercial influence. What other spot in the wide 
world can present in such narrow compass such mountains and 
wooded lakes as the Adirondacks, such charming outlook as the 
Catskills, such islands as the St. Lawrence, such Highlands as 
the Hudson and so noble a climax of majesty as Niagara. 

Proud swaying pendant of a crystal chain, 

On fair Columbia's rich and bounteous breast, 
"With beaded lakes that necklace-like retain 

Heaven's stainless blue with golden sunlight blest! 
What other land can boast a gem so bright! 

With colors born of sun and driven spray— 
A brooch of glory, amulet of might, 

Where all the irised beauties softly stray. 
Ay, more— God's living voice, Niagara thou! 

Proclaiming wide the anthem of the free; 
The starry sky the crown upon thy brow, 

Thy ceaseless chant a song of Liberty. 
But this thy birthright, this thy sweetest dower, 

Yon arching rainbow— Love still spanning Power. 



CONDENSED POINTS 

AS SEEN ON HUDSON RIVER DAY LINE STEAMERS FROM 

NEW YORK TO ALBANY. 

Statue of Liberty, to the south on leaving Vestry street Pier. 

Stevens's Castle and Elysian Fields, on west bank. 

Twenty-second Street Pier, east bank, up-town Day Line Landing- 

St. Michael's Monastery, Dome and Tower, on west bank. 

Weehawken, west bank ; docks of West Shore R. R. 

El Dorado Summer Resort, on west bank, with iron structure 
for carrying 1 two elevators and a railway to the garden. 

Tomb of General Ulysses S. Grant, on east bank at Riverside 
Park. 

Manhattanville, above Riverside on east bank. 

Edgewater, on west bank opposite Manhattanville. 

Trinity Cemetery, on east bank above Manhattanville. 

Fort Lee, on west bank ; large Picnic Houses at foot of bluff. 

Washington Heights and Fort Washington Point, on east bank, al- 
most opposite Fort Lee. 

Palisades, on west bank, extend fifteen miles from Fort Lee to 
Piermont, a sheer wall of trap-rock from 300 to 500 feet high. 

Spuyten Duyvil Creek, on east bank, northern boundary of Man- 
hattan island. 

Site of Fort Independence, east bank, on height above Spuyten 
Duyvil. 

Biverdale Station, east bank, one mile and a half above Spuyten 
Duyvil. 

Convent of Mount St. Vincent. The Castle-like structure in front 
was once the home of Edwin Forrest, the Tragedian. 

Yonkers, seventeen miles from Battery, on east bank. 

Glenwood, north of Yonkers, east side. The fine residences 
near the river bank are J. B. Colgate's and J. B. Trevor's. 

298 



THE HUDSON. 299 

C. H. LilienthaVs Residence, on the east side, large building - on 
ridge with tower, half mile from the river. 

Greystone, about i mile north of Lilienthal's. Residence of the 
late Samuel J. Tilden. 

J. K. Myers's Residence, with tower, north of Greystone. 

Hastings-on-the- Hudson. Chimneys of sugar factory near the 
River. 

Dr. Huylefs Clock Tower and Windmill, short distance above 
ruins. 

DobVs Ferry, on east bank, named after an old Swedish ferry- 
man. 

Cottinet Place, on east bank, built of stone brought from France. 

George L. Schuyler's Residence, near east bank. The late Col. 
James A. Hamilton's house almost east of Mr. Schuyler's. 

Irvington, 24 miles from New York. 

"Shady Nest," owned by Mrs. E. Phillips, on west bank just 
north of Erie Pier. 

Tappan Zee, a great bay or inland lake of the Hudson, 10 miles 
long and in some places three miles wide, reaching from Dobb's 
Ferry to Croton Point. 

Piermont, 24 miles from New York, on west side. Pier almost 
one mile long extends into the Hudson. 

Sunnyside, east bank, hardly visible through the trees close to 
the River, about a half mile north of Irvington Station. 

Residence of the late Jay Gould, known as "Lyndehurst," once 
known as the Paulding Manor House. 

Cunningham Castle, with pointed tower on the hill ; Bierstadt's 
residence (south of it), in ruins ; the elegant house with pagoda- 
like tower, recently built by Mr. Sigafuss ; the spiral look-out 
tower of Robert Graves ; Hatch Castle, embowered in trees on 
the hillside ; and the new residences of Mr. Casey, Mr. Millard, 
and Mr. Andrews complete the picture on the eastern bank. 

Tarrytown, east bank, 26 miles from New York, one of the 
historic and poetic towns of the Hudson. 

Nyack, west bank, opposite Tarrytown. 

"Rockwood," east bank, formerly the Aspinwall estate. Owned 



300 THE HUDSON. 

by William Rockefeller, of the Standard Oil Company. One of 
the most imposing residences on the Hudson. 

Sleepy Hollow, east bank, north of Tarry town. Burial yard 
monument seen through the trees ; at southerly point of burial 
yard, the old Dutch Church is just visible. 

Kingsland Point Light-house, built in 1883. 

Ramapo Mountains, above Nyack, on the west side, known by 
navigators as the Hook, or Point-no-Point. They lie in little 
head-lands and reach from Nyack to Haverstraw. 

Sing Sing, on the east side, six miles above Tarry town. The 
low white building's, near the river bank, south of the village, 
are the State Prison. 

Rockland Lake, opposite Sing Sing, between two hills. This is 
the source of the Hackensack River, and a great ice-quarry for 
New York. 

Croton River, east bank, meets the Hudson one mile above Sing 
Sing, where we see the drawbridge of the Hudson River Railroad. 

Croton Point. Just above Croton River. 

Teller's Point. That part of Croton Point which juts into the 
Hudson. This point separates Tappan Zee from Haverstraw Bay. 

Haverstraw Bay, north of Teller's Point. Here the river is 
over four miles wide ; the mountain on the west side is High 
Torn. 

The West Shore Railroad here strikes the river. The view 
opened to the railroad passenger, suddenly emerging from the 
tunnel, is striking and picturesque. 

Haverstraw, on west side, with two miles of brick-yards. 

Stony Point, a mile above Grassy Point, on west side. 

Verplanck's Point, on east shore. 

Tompkin's Cove, on west bank. Lime kilns and quarries. 

Sey^maker's Reach. A person looking north from this point 
sees no break in the mountains to mark the course of the river. 

Peekskill, east bank, pleasantly located. 

New York State Encampment, just north of Peekskill River. 

KidcVs Point* now Caldwell's Landing, on west side. The 



THE HUDSON. 301 

steamer turns this point almost at right angles and enters the 
Highlands. 

Dunderberg, west bank. 

Iona Island. Grapery, and a fine picnic ground. 

The Race. The river channel is so termed by navigators, be- 
tween Iona Island and the east bank. 

Antlumy's Nose. Railroad tunnel near the river. 

Montgomery Creek, on west side, about opposite the point of An- 
thony's Nose. 

Fort Clinton was on the south side of this creek and Fort Mont- 
gomery was on the north. 

Sugar-Loaf. Turning Anthony's Nose we get a good view of 
Sugar-Loaf Mountain to the north. 

Beverley Dock, on east bank, where Arnold fled to the "Vul- 
ture." A little boat-house marks the spot. 

William H. Osborne's Residence. House with pointed tower, on 
the east bank of of the river, just north of Sugar-Loaf. 

Buttermilk Falls near the river, on the west bank. 

Hotel on the Bluff, known in early times as " Cozzen's Hotel." 

West Point, 50 miles from New York. Academy, Parade 
Grounds, etc. 

Garrison. Opposite West Point, on east bank. 

Kosciusko's Monument. West side, above West Point Landing. 

Fort Putnam, 596 feet high, overlooks the river on the west side. 

West Point Hotel has a fine look off to the north. 

Constitution Island, opposite the Point. 

Old Cid* Nest. On west side, above the Point. 

Cold Spring. On east bank, opposite Old Cro' Nest. 

Undercliff. A short distance north of Cold Spring, once the 
house of Geo. P. Morris, on an elevated plateau above the river. 

Mount Taurus, or Bull Hill, above Undercliff. 

Little Stony Point. Under Mount Taurus. Named from resem- 
blance to Stony Point, south of the Highlands. 

Break Neck. Above Mount Taurus, on the east side. 

Storm King. On west bank, above Old Cro' Nest. 



302 THE HUDSON. 

Beacon Hill, seen on east bank above Break Neck. 

Fishkill Mountains trend off to the northeast, across the south- 
ern part of Dutchess County. 

Cornwall, with Summer Homes, on west side above Storm King-. 

PollopeVs Island, at upper portal of the Highlands, near the 
east bank. 

Worrygut, the river channel between Cro' Nest and Break 
Neck, just south of Pollopel's Island. 

Cornwall and West Point Boad passes over the mountains to 
West Point. 

Idlewild, one mile above Cornwall Landing-. 

New Windsor, on west side, about 4 miles north of Cornwall, 
once the rival of Newburgh ; now a brick-yard. 

Newburgh Bay. One of the finest bays on the Hudson. 

Washington's Headquarters, Newburgh, 1781-1783, seen as the 
boat approaches the city; an old building- with tall chimneys and 
steep roof almost sloping- to the foundation. A flag-staff marks 
the point. 

Newburgh, 59 miles from New York. 

Fishkill Landing. On the east side, opposite Newburg-h. 

Low Point, or Carthage. On east side, 4 miles above Fishkill. 

DeviVs Dans Kammer ; point on west bank covered with cedars. 
Hendrick Hudson here witnessed an Indian Pow Wow. 

JVeie Hamburgh, above Low Point, on the east side, at the 
mouth of Wappingers Creek. 

Hampton Point, opposite New Hamburgh. Here are the finest 
white cedars on the river. 

Irving GrinnelVs Besidence "Netlierwood," just distinguished 
through the trees near the River bank. 

"The Cedars." Residence and grounds of Dr. James Lennox 
Banks, with high tower, seen for many miles north and south. 

Clinton Place, just north. The house was burned several years 
ago and never re-built. 

ShawangunJc Mountains, on the west side, reach away in the 
distance toward the Catskills. 



THE HUDSON. 303 

Marlborough and Milton. Two pleasant villages on the west bank. 

Locust Grove. Home of the late S. F. B. Morse, on east bank, 
with square central tower, and open outlook on the river. 

The Lookout, wooded hill owned by Poughkeepsie Cemetery. 

Livingston Place, now occupied by a Rolling - Mill. 

Vassar Brothers' Hospital, new brick building on the hill. 

Biverview Military Academy, large brick building north of Hos- 
pital. 

Buckeye Mower Manufactoi-y, Adriance, Piatt & Co., proprietors. 
Building near the river bank. 

Kaal Bock, near Poughkeepsie dock. Name Signifies Barren 
Rock. 

Vassar Brewery. Long white buildings above the landing. 

New Paltz Landing, opposite Poughkeepsie. 

Poughkeepsie, 7-4 miles from New York. 

The Poughkeepsie Bridge. 

F. J. Allen's Besidence, with tower and beautiful grounds north 
of Rosehill. 

College Hill Building, Parthenon style of architecture, once a 
school. 

Poughkeepsie Water Works. The water is forced from Reservoirs 
near the river to a large Reservoir on College Hill. 

Hudson Biver State Hospital. On the Hyde Park road. Large 
red Building. 

Hyde Park, on the east side, six miles north of Poughkeepsie. 
Connected with Poughkeepsie by a succession of villas. 

Walter Langdon's Besidence, Mrs. Kirkpatrick's and N. P. 
Rogers's are north of Hyde Park, on the east side. 

Manresa Institute, large building above Crum Elbow on west side. 

Dyke Estate, above Manresa Institute, square house with square 
tower. 

A. B. Frothingham. Grecian Portico with columns. 

John Burroughs^ brown stone cottage, north of Frothingham's. 

Alexander Holland's Besidence, formerly residence of John Jacob 
A.stor, English style of architecture. West bank. 



304 THE HUDSON. 

Pelham, R. L. PelVs Residence, Roman villa style with white 
columns, will be seen on west bank. 

"Gros Bois," on east bank, owned by Robert T. Lord, formerly 
called "Placentia," once the home of James K. Paulding. 

"Drayton Hall" also on east bank. Formerly the Kirkpatrick 
estate. Now owned by Mr. Sexton. A villa of the Italian order 
of architecture. 

Staatsburgh, on east side. Dock and ice houses in foreground. 

Overlook Mountain House, seen from this point to the northwest. 

The Hotel Kaaterskill and Catskill Mountain House can also be 
seen from this point, fifteen miles north of the Overlook. 

William B. Dinsmore's Residence, a large yellow building on 
Dinsmore's Point ; one of the finest on the Hudson. The first 
house south of Mr. Dinsmore's on the east bank is Matthew Liv- 
ingston's ; the second, Mrs. Hoyt's house, with French roof ; the 
next, one-eight of a mile south, Mr. J. Lawrence Lee's. 

Windcliff, Residence of Mr. Fricke, on east bank; a large stone 
villa with central tower. It was formerly the estate of Edward 
R. Jones. The residence just below belongs to Mr. Jacob Rupert. 

EUerslie, Residence of Ex-Vice-President Levi P. Morton, be- 
low Rhinecliff. 

Rhinecliff, or Rhinebeck Landing, on the east side. 

City of Kingston, embraces Kingston and Rondout. 

Old Beekman Place. As the steamer leaves Rhinebeck Land- 
ing, the old Beekman Place can be seen in the trees, a short 
distance above the landing, one of the old Revolutionary houses. 

Ferncliff, Residence of William Astor. Fine villa with pointed 
tower. 

Garretson Place, north of Ferncliff, on east bank. This place, 
long known as Clifton Point, is now the property of Louis Ehler. 

"Leacote," Douglas MerriWs Residence, north of Clifton Point. 

Flatbush. Village seen on west bank opposite Clifton Point. 

F. H. Delano's Residence. Brown house with square tower. 
^ Rokeby, Residence of late William B. Astor, above Astor's Point. 

Bairytown, on east bank. 



THE HUDSON. 305 

Aspinwall Place, north of Barrytown, formerly John R. Liv- 
ingston's place. 

Montgomery Place. Brown house among the trees. 

Crugefs Residence, on Cruger's Island, once called Lower Red 
Hook Island. 

TJie First Steamboat, The "Clermont," was built by Robert 
Fulton in the Cove, known as North Bay, just north of Cruger's 
Island. 

Tivoli, on east side, 100 miles from New York. 

Chateau of Tivoli, Residence of Col. Johnson L. De Peyster, 
French roof house on terrace south of Tivoli Station. 

Glasco. South of Tivoli on west side. 

Rose Hill, Residence of Gen. J. Watts de Peyster, east side. 
Residence seen among the trees north of Tivoli Station. 

Saugerties, on west side. A dock, 3,600 feet long shows the en- 
terprise of this village. 

Idele, property of Miss Clarkson, known as the old Chancellor 
Place. 

Maiden. Above Saugerties, on west side. 

Clermont. Above Tivoli, on east side. 

West Camp, on west side, above Maiden. 

Germantown, on east side, 105 miles from New York. 

Man in the Mountain. Between Germantown and Catskill we 
get a fine view of the reclining giant. 

Burden Mines, on east bank, one mile south of Catskill Station. 

Herman LivingstojVs Residence, on point above. 

Catskill Creek empties into the Hudson south of Catskill Dock. 

Catskill, 110 miles from New York. Village one mile west from 
the landing. Route from this point to Catskill Mountains, via 
Catskill Mountain Railroad and Otis Elevating Railway. 

Prospect Park Hotel, on west bank, north of Catskill. 

Cole's Grove, north of Catskill, a little back from the river, was 
the residence of Thomas Cole, the artist. 

Frederick E. Church' 's Residence. One of the most commanding 
"ites and finest residences on the east bank, opposite Catskill. 



306 THE HUDSON. 

Rodgers's Island, on the east side, where the last battle was 
fought between the Mohawks and theMohegans. 

Mount Merino, two miles north of Rodgers's Island, on the east 
bank. 

Col. O. D. Ashley's Residence, on the northern slope of Mount 
Merino. 

State Reformatory for Women, new building on bluff south of 
Hudson. 

A. Frank B. Chace's Residence, Hudson, with pointed turret near 
church spire ; one of the finest in Hudson in point of architecture. 

Huolson, east bank, 115 mi]es from New York. 

Athens, an antique, quiet village, on the west bank. 

Stockport, on east side, four miles north of Hudson. 

Four-mile-Point, on west side. 

Coxsackie, on west side, 8 miles from Hudson. 

Newton Hook, opposite Coxsackie. The wooded point is called 
Prospect Grove. 

Stuyvesant, on the east side ; once called Kinderhook Landing. 

New Baltimore, about opposite the centre of Schodack Island, 
fifteen miles from Hudson and fifteen from Albany. The Govern- 
ment dykes begin opposite New Baltimore. 

Coeymans, west bank just above Beeren Island. 

Castleton, a pleasant village, on east bank, town of Schodack. 

Staats's Island, settled by the Staats family before the arrival 
of the Van Reusselaers. The house is about 200 years old, at 
least a part of it, and mostly built of stone. 

The Overslaugh reaches from Van Wies' Point (the first point 
above Cedar Hill), on east bank, about two miles np the river. 

Van Rensselaer Place. One of the Van Rensselaer houses on 
the east bank, built before the Revolution. 

Albany, 142 miles from New York, with beautiful location and 
grand public buildings ; notably among these the Capitol, the 
Cathedral, the State House and City Hall. 

Greenbush, connected with Albany by two substantial railroad 
bridges, one carriage bridge, and by ferries. 



GEOLOGY OF THE HUDSON. 



In addition to various geological references scattered through 
these pages the following facts from an American Geological 
Railway Guide, by James Macfarlane, Ph.D., will be of interest : 

"The State of New York is to the geologist what the Holy Land 
is to the Christian, and the works of her Palaeontologist are the 
Old Testament Scriptures of the science. It is a Laurentian, 
Cambrian, Silurian and Devonian State, containing all the 
groups and all the formations of these long ages, beautifully de- 
veloped in belts running nearly across the State in an east and 
west direction, lying undisturbed as originally laid down. 

" The rock of New York Island is gneiss, except a portion of the 
north end, which is limestone. The south portion is covered 
with deep alluvial deposits, which in some places are more than 
100 feet in depth. The natural outcroppings of the gneiss ap- 
peared on the surface about 16th street, on the east side of the 
city, and run diagonally across to 31st street on 10th avenue. 
North of this, much of the surface was naked rock. It contains 
a large proportion of mica, a small proportion of quartz and still 
less feldspar, but generally an abundance of iron pyrites in very 
minute crystals, which, on exposure, are decomposed. In conse- 
quence of these ingredients it soon disintegrates on exposure, 
rendering it unfit for the purposes of building. The erection of 
a great city, for which this island furnishes a noble site, has very 
greatly changed its natural condition. The geological age of 
the New York gneiss is undoubtedly very old, not the Lauren- 
tian or oldest, nor the Huronian, but it belongs to to the third or 
White Mountain series, named by Dr. Hunt the Montalban. It 
is the same range which is the basis rock of nearly all the great 

307 



308 THE HTJDSO'in. 

cities of the Atlantic coast. It crosses New Jersey where it is 
turned to clay, until it appears under Trenton, and it extends to 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Richmond, Va., and 
probably Boston, Massachusetts, is founded on this same for- 
mation. 

' ' On the opposite side of the river may here be seen for many 
miles the Palisades, a long, rough mountain ridge close to the 
water's edge. Its upper half is a perpendicular precipice of bare 
rock of a columnar structure from 100 to 200 feet in height, the 
whole height of the mountain being generally from 400 to 600 
feet, and the highest point in the range opposite Sing Sing 800 
feet above the Hudson, and known as the High Torn. The width 
of the mountain is from a half mile to a mile and a half, the 
western slope being quite gentle. In length it extends from 
Bergen Point below Jersey City to Haverstraw, and then west- 
ward in all 48 miles, the middle portion being merely a low ridge. 
The lower half of the ridge on the river side is as loping mound 
of detritus, of loose stones which has accumulated at the base of 
the cliff, being derived from its weathered and wasted surface. 
This talus and the summit of the mountain are covered with 
trees, with the bare rocky precipice called the Palisades be- 
tween, and many fine country residences may be seen on the 
level summit, from which are beautiful views of the river, the 
harbor and City of NeW York. Viewed from the railroad or from 
a steamboat on the river, this lofty mural precipice with its huge 
weathered masses of upright columns of bare rock, presenting a 
long, straight unbroken ridge overlooking the beautiful Hudson 
River s is certainly extremely picturesque. Thousands of travel- 
ers gaze at it daily without knowing what it is. This entire 
ridge consists of no other rock than trap traversing the Triassic 
formation in a huge vertical dike. The red sandstone formation 
of New Jersey is intersected by numerous dikes of this kind, but 
this is much the finest. The materials of this mountain have 
undoubtedly burst through a great rent oi* fissure in the strata, 
overflowing while in a melted or plastic condition the red sand- 



•TELA HUDSON. 309 

stone, not with the violence of a volcano, for the adjoining 1 strata 
are but little disturbed in position, although often greatly al- 
tered by the heat, but forced up very slowly and gradually, and 
probably under pressure. Subsequent denudation has laid bare 
the part of the mountain now exposed along the river. The rock 
is columnar basalt, sometimes called greenstone, and is solid, 
not stratified like water-formed rocks, but cracked in cooling and 
of a crystalline structure. Here is a remarkable but not uncom- 
mon instance of a great geological blank. On the east side of 
this river the formations belong to the first or oldest series of 
Primary or Crystalline rocks, while on the west side they are all 
Triassic, the intermediate Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian and 
Carboniferous formations being wanting. This state of things 
continues all along the Atlantic coast to Georgia, the Cretaceous 
or Jurassic taking the place of the Triassic farther south. 

' ' Montrose to Cornwall. This celebrated passage of the Hudson 
through the Highlands, is a gorge nearly 20 miles long from 3 
miles south of Peekskill to Fishkill, and is worn out of the Lau- 
rentian rocks far below mean tide water. The hills on its sides 
rise in some instances as much as 1.800 feet, and in many places 
the walls are very precipitous. The rock is gneiss, of a kind 
that is not easily disintegrated or eroded, nor is there any evi- 
dence of any convulsive movement. It is clearly a case of 
erosion, but not by the present river, which has no fall, for tide 
water extends 100 miles up the river beyond the Highlands. 
This therefore was probably a work mainly performed in some 
past period when the continent was at a higher level. Most 
likely it is a valley of great antiquity. 

"Opposite Fishkill is New'burgh, which is in the great valley of 
Lower Silurian or Cambrian limestone and slate. North of that, 
on the west side of the river, the formations occur in their usual 
order, their outcrops running northeast and southwest. On the 
N. Y. C. & H. R. R. R., on the east side, the same valley crosses, 
and the slates from Fishkill to Rhinebeck are about the same 
place in the series ; but being destitute of fossils and very much 



310 THE HUDSON. 

faulted, tilted and disturbed, their precise geology is uncertain. 
See the exposures in the cuts at Poughkeepsie. The high 
ground to the east is commonly called the Quebec group. 

"A series of great dislocations with upthrows on the east side 
traverse eastern North America from Canada to Alabama. One 
of these great faults has been traced from near the mouth of the 
St. Lawrence River, keeping mostly under the water up to Que- 
bec just north of the fortress, thence by a gently curving line to 
Lake Champlain or through Western Vermont across Washing- 
ton County, N. Y., to near Albany. It crosses the river near 
Rhinebeck 15 miles north of Poughkeepsie and continues on 
southward into New Jersey and runs into another series of faults 
probably of a later date, which extends as far as Alabama. It 
brings up the rocks of the so called Quebec group on the east 
side of the fracture to the level of the Hudson River and Trenton, 

"Catskill Mountains. For many miles on this railroad are 
beautiful views of the Catskill Mountains, 3,800 feet high, sev- 
eral miles distant on the opposite or west side of the river, and 
which furnish the name for the Catskill formation. The wide 
valley between them and the river is composed of Chemung, 
Hamilton, Lower Helderberg and Hudson River. The geology 
on the east or railroad side is entirely different. 

"Albany. The clay beds at Albany are more than 100 feet 
thick, and between that city and Schenectady they are under- 
laid by a bed of sand that is in some places more than 50 feet 
thick. There is an old glacial clay and boulder drift below the 
gravel at Albany, but Professor Hall says it is not the estuary 
stratified clay." 



SOME PLEASANT POUND TPIPS. 

The round trip from New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, New- 
ark, Elizabeth, (or all points of easy access to the Metropolis ) 
v la the Hudson River Day Line to West Point, Newbur-h or 
Poughkeepsie, is unrivaled in its combination of comfort, enjov- 
ment, health, and scenery. 

A round trip from New York to the pleasant villages of Ulster 
and Delaware Counties, via the Day Line to Rhinebeck, Ron- 
dout, and the Ulster & Delaware Railroad, returning via Day 
Line Steamer, connecting- at Rhinebeck by ferry 

A round trip to the Catskill Mountains, with its charming 
hotels and cheery parks, via Rhinebeck and Ulster & Delaware 
or via Catskill and the Catskill Mountain Railroad and the Otis 
Elevating- Railway. 

A round trip to Saratoga and Lake George, Delaware & Hud- 
son Railway connecting with Day Line at Albany : also to the 
Adirondacks and the Headwaters of the Hudson. 

A round trip unrivaled in beauty and variety, via Day Line 
to Albany, Saratoga, Lake George, Lake Champlain, to Burlino- 
ton, thence to the White Mountains ; returning via the Con- 
necticut River Railroad, or via Boston and the noble steamers 
Rnscilla Puritan, and Pilgrim, or the thoroughly equipped 
New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. 

A round trip via the superb steamer " Richard Peck " is ad- 
mirably suited for New York people who are unable to take a 
complete day for an outing, leaving Peck Slip daily at 3 o'clock 
in the afternoon, affording four hours in the beautiful City of 
Elms, returning the traveler same night ready for mornino- 
work after a restful trip on the Sound. 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Abbey, Henry, . 208, 209 

Abbotsford 83 

Albany, .... 236, 242 

Historical Sketch of, . 236 

Railway Stations, . . 237 

State Capitol, 237, 238, 239, 240 

State Library, ... 240 

Alpine Gorge, ... 77 

Andre, John Major, . 113,117 

Monument to, 88 

Andros, Edmund Governor, 34 

Anthony's Nose, . . 107, 109 

Aqueduct, Croton, . . 96 

Arnold, Benedict, story of the 

treason of, ... 113, 117 
Argal, Samuel Sir, . . 32 
Athens, . . . . 226 

Audubon Park, ... 62 
Ausable Chasm, . . 266, 269 



Ballston Spa, 




246 


Balmville, . 




147 


Barkley Heights, 




201 


Barren Island (Beerin), 




229 


Barrytown, 




192 


Beacon, North, 




133 


Beacon, Old, . 




133 


Bear Mount, . 




109 


Beecher, Henry Ward, 




102 


Benton, Joel, Description 


of 




Poughkeepsie, 


157 


161 


Beverley House, . 




113 


Beverley Dock, 


113 


114 


Big Indian, 




188 


Bishop's Falls, 




187 


Black Creek, . 




177 


Bloomville, 




189 


Blue Point, 




233 



Bluff Point, . 
Bolton, . . . . 
Breakneck Mountain, 
Brooklyn, 

Broadway (Yonkers), . 
Bull Hill (Mt. Taurus), 
Burgoyne, General, 
Burr, Aaron, 
Burroughs, John, . 
Buttermilk Falls, 



page. 

269 

262 

130 

40 

77 

130 

112,113 

56, 58 

171, 172 

na 



Caldwell, .... 258 
Carmansville, ... 62 
Carthage, .... 153 
Castle, Phillipse, . . 76 
Castleton, .... 230 
Catskill, .... 210 

Catskill Creek, ... 210 
Catskill Mountain House, 211 
Catskills, The, . . . 206. 
Catskills, The Altitude of 12 
Catskills, The Height of 

Mountains of 25 
Catskills, The Northern, 211 
Catskills, The Southern, 186 
Catskills, To The, . . 186 
Catskill Station. . . 209 
Centennial of the Disband- 
ing of the Army— Newburgh, 144 
Chestnut Grove, . . . 168 
Church, Frederick E., resi- 
dence of 220 

Churchill Hall, ... 189 
Claremont Heights . . 61 
Claverack, .... 222 
Clinton, Henry Sir, . 110, 113 
Clover Reach of the Hud- 
son, 209 

cobleskill, .... 286- 



INDEX. 



313 



COEYMANS, 
COHOES, 

Cole's Grove, 
Cold Spring, 
Columbia Springs, 
Colgate Mansion, 
communipaw, antiquity 0¥ 
Constitution Island, 
Continental Village, 
, Cornwall on the Hudson 
home of the late E. P. Roe, 
Cornwall, .... 
Cooperstown, . 
Country Seats, 
Coxsackie, 
Cranston's, 
Cro' Nest, Old, 
Cro' Nest, Plateau, 
Croton Bay, .... 
Croton Point (Teller's Point), 
Croton River, 
Crown Point, 

Crum Elbow, .... 
Cruger's Island, . 

D. 



PAGE. 
230 
244, 245 
220 



129 
222 
78 
28 
127 
111 



134 

136 

. . 287 

See Maps 

229 

118 

17, 25) 127 

136 

97 

97 

96 

265 

168 

194 



danskammer, . . . 153 

Delaware & Hudson, . 243—288 
Denning's Point, . . 147, 152 
Depew, Chauncey M., summer 

home of, 

Dinsmore Point, home of the 

late Wm. B. Dinsmore, 
Dix, John A. General, 
Dobbs Ferry, 
Drake, Rodman, 
Dunderberg, The, 



102 



62 

78 

128, 129 

106 



E. 



East Albany, 
Edgewater, 
El Dorado, 



236 
61 
58 



Elizabethtown, 

Elk a Park, . . . , 

Ellerslie Dock— " Ellerslie " 

— summer home of Vice-Pres 

Levi P. Morton, 
Elysian Fields, 
Esopus, 
Esopus Island. 
Esopus Creek, 



page. 
266 



191 



177 
56 
180 
177 
180 



F. 



Ferncliff, residenee 
Jacob Astor, . 

FlSHKILL, . 

Foote, Mary Hallock 
Forrest, Edwin, 
Fort Clinton, 
Fort Constitution, 
Fort Edward, 
Fort George, 
Fort Independence, 
Fort Lafayette, . 
Fort Lee, 
Fort Putnam, 
Fort Ticonderoga, 
Fort Tryon, 
Fort Washington, 
Four Mile Lighthouse 
Fulton, Robert, . 

G. 



of 



John 

192 
147, 153 
154 
75 
120, 123 
68 
256 
67 
102 
101 
68 
120 
257 
67 
65,67 
228 
194 



Garrison, .... 114 

Germantown, .... 206 
Glasco Landing, ... 200 
Glens Falls, .... 256 
Glenwood, .... 78 
Gomez Explores the Hudson, . 61 
Gould, Jay, summer home of 

the late 88 

Grand Hotel, ... 189 

Grant, U. S. General, Tomb of 59 
Grassy Point, ... 99 



314 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Great Chip Rock, ... 68 

Greenbttsh 236 

Green Mountains of Ver- 
mont, 224 

"Greystone," residence of the 
late Samuel J. Tilden, . . 78 

GUTTENBERG, .... 58 

H. 

Haine's Station, ... 191 

Haine's Falls, ... 191 

Half Moon, The, . . 13, 16, 21 

Hamilton, Alexander, 56, 57, 58, 114 

Hampton Point, ... 154 

Hastings, 78 

Haverstraw, .... 97 

Haverstraw Bay, . . 97 

High Bridge, .... 96 

Highland Station, . . 168 

Highland Falls, ... 118 

Highland Forts, Fall of 
the, 110, 113 



12 
98 
59 



(Point-no- 



Highlands, The, 
High Torn, 

HOBOKEN, 

Hook Mountain 

Point), 
Horse Race, The, 
Hotel, Champlain The, 
Hotel, Kaaterskill The, 
Howe's Cave, . 
Hudson, City of, . 
Hudson, Hendrich, 
Hudson River: 

Its Discovery, 

First Description, 

Names of the, 

Heights of Hills and Mount- 
ains of, ... . 22 

Sources of the, . . .25, 26 

First Settlement of the, . 27, 29 



94 
109 
269 
218 
286 
221 
13, 21 

16 
19,21 
21, 22 



PAGE. 

Hudson River: 

The Original Manors and 

Patents, .... 29 
Five Divisions of the, 
Early Navigation on the, 41, 45 
The Old Reaches, . . 50 
John Burroughs on the, . 172 
Irving's description of his 
first voyage up the, . 219 

Hunter, 190 

Hussey's Mountains, . . 177 
Hyde Park, .... 171 

I. 

Ice and Ice Harvest, . . 226 
"Idlewild," residence of N. P. 

Willis, 134 

Indian Head, .... 201 
Iona Island, . . . . 109 
Irvington, .... 80 
Irving, Washington, . 31, 80, 87 

J. 

Jeffrey's Hook, ... 62 

Jersey City, .... 41 

Jessup's Landing, . . 254 

Jones's Point .... 105 

K. 

Kaal Rock, 
Kaaterskill Falls, 



Kellogg, Clara Louise, former 



home of , . 
Kidd's Point, 
Kidd, Captain, story of 

KlNDERHOOK, . 

King Estate, . 
King's Ferry, 
Kingsland's Point 

house, 
Kingston, City of, 
Kosciusko's garden, 
Kosciusko's Monument, 



157 
214 



107 
105 
105, 153 
229 
57 
111 



LlGHT- 



92 
186 
120 
120 



INDEX. 



315 



PAGE. 
L. 

Lafayette, General, 

114, 142, 143, 144 152 

Lake Champlain, . . 265, 269 

Lake George, . 261,265,269,273 

Lake Placid, . ... 271 

Lansingburgh, . . . 244 

Laurel House, ... 219 

Lebanon Springs, . . 224 

LlNDENWALD, .... 225 

Livingston Country, The, 202, 203 
Livingston Manor, . . .30 
Livingston House, . . 79 

Livingston Manor House, 

"Clermont," .... 202 
Low Point (Carthage), . . 153 

M. 

Mahopac Lake, . . 96, 97 

Malden, 201 

Manhattan, Island of, . 32 

Manhattanville, . . 61 

Manitou Mountain, . . 107 

Marlborough, ... 154 
Matteawan, Village of, 

147, 148, 149 

Mechanicville, . . . 145 

Milton, 154 

Montreal 271 

Morse, S. F. B. Prof., home of 

the late, 154 

Morton, Levi P., summer resi- 
dence of, 177 

Montgomery Hall, . . 193 

Montgomery Place, . . 193 

Mountain House, . . 211 

Mount Cornell, ... 187 

Mount Hymettus, . . 172 

Mount Marcy, . . 276 

Mount Merino, . . 221 

Mount Pleasant, . . 137 

Mount St. Vincent, . 75 



page. 
Mourdener's Kill, The, . 233 

N. 

Narrows, The, ... 19 
Nepperhan, The, ... 75 
New Amsterdam, . . 30 

New Baltimore, . . 234, 235 
Newburgh, . . 15, 137, 147 
New Hamburgh, . . . 154 
New Paltz, .... 168 
New Windsor, ... 137 
New York, . . . . 34 
New York Sons of Liberty, 38 
North Bay, .... 194 
North Beacon, ... 133 
North Creek, . . . 254 
North Mountain, . . 212 
North River, .... 22 
Nutten Hook, .... 229 
NYACK 93, 94 



o. 

Old Cro' Nest . 
Old Reaches, The 
Olive Branch, 
Ontiora Park, 



IZ 



', 129 

50 

186 

191 



Otis Elevating Railway, The, 212 
Overlook Mountain House 186 



Palatinate, The, ... 202 
Palisades, The, . . .25, 68 

Palenville 212 

Panther Mountain, . . 188 

Patriotism, Page of, . . 37 

Paulding, James K., . . 171 

Peekskill, .... 101 
Peekskill, Paulding's burial 

place of, . . . . . 102 
Peekskill, State National 

Guard Encampment, . . 107 

PELHAM, .... 176 



316 



INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Phillipse Family, . . 76 
Phillipse Manor, . . 76 
Phoenicia, .... 187 
Photo Panorama of the Hud- 
son, 55 

Piermont, .... 87 

Pine Hill, .... 189 

Plattsburgh, . . . 212 

Platterkill Clove, . . 201 

Pleasant Valley, . . 61 

Pocantico Creek, . . 92 

Pollopel's Island, . . 134 

PortEwen, .... 177 

Port Kent, . .'.... 266 

Poughkeepsie, ... 156 

Early History of, . 157, 161 

Eastman College, . . 161 

Vassar College, . . 161 

Cantilever Bridge, . . 167 

Putnam, Israel General, 

102, 110, 111 

Q. 

Quechee Lake, Birthplace of 
Miss Warner, Authoress, . 224 

R. 
Railways : 

Adirondack, . . . 254 

Albany & Susquehanna, . 287 

Boston & Albany, . . 236 

Catskill Mountain Railway, 212 

Cooperstown & Susquehanna, 287 

Delaware & Hudson, . 243, 271 

Delaware, Lackawanna & 

"Western, ... 54, 288 

Delaware & Otsego, . . 189 

Erie, 54 

Hudson River, ... 75 

New York Central, - . 96 

New York, Ontario & West- 
ern, 54 

Northern Railroad of New 

Jersey, .... 94 



page. 

Railways : 

Otis Elevating Railway, . 212 
Stony Clove & Catskill Mount- 
ain, 190 

Ulster & Delaware, . . 185 
West Shore, . . .54, 98 

Red Hook (Lower), ... 193 
Rensselaerstein, Castle of, 229 
Rhineclipp, .... 178 
Rhinebeck, .... 178 
Rip Van Winkle, . 191, 217, 218 

RlVERDALE, .... 75 

Riverside Park and Drive, 54 
Rockland Lake, . . 94 

"Rockwood," home of Wm. 

Rockefeller, .... 95 
Rodger's Island, . . . 220 
Roe, E. P. Rev., home of the 

late, 134 

ROELIFFE JANSEN'S KILL, . 209 

RONDOUT, . . . . 180 

Rondout Creek, ... 180 
Rose Hill, .... 199 
Round Lake, . . . 245, 246 
Roxbury, .... 189 



Saranac Lake, 

Saratoga, 

Saugerties, 

Scarborough, 

Schodack, 

Schoharie, 

Schroon Lake, 

Shad-Fishing, 

Shandaken. 

Sharon Springs, - 

Shaupeneak Mountains, 

Sing Sing, 

Sinnipink, 

Sleepy Hollow, 

Slide Mountain, . , 



292 
246, 253 
201 

95 
230 
286 
254 
203 
188 
287 
177 

95 
110 

91 
188 



INDEX. 



317 



PAGE. 
74 

177 

189 

236, 242 



rv- 



Spuyten Duyvil Creek, 
Staatsbtjrgh, . 
Stamford, . , 
State Capitol, The, 
Steamboats: 

"Albany," . 

"Mary Powell," 

"New York," 
Stevens's Castle, . 
Stony Clove, . 
Stony Hollow, 
Stony Point, . 
Storm King, 
Storm Ship, 
Stuyvesant, 
Sugar Loaf, 
Summit, The, . 
"Sunnyside," Washington 
ing's home. 

T. 
Table Mountain, . 
Talmage, T. DeWitt Rev 

Tribute to the Hudson, 
Tannersville, 
Tappan, 
Tappan Zee, 
Tarrytown, 
Teller's Point, 
Thurman, . 
Tivoli, 

Tompkins' Cove, 
Troy, . 
Troy Rensselaer 

nic Institute, 
Twilight Park, 

U. 
Undercliff, 
Union Hill, 

V. 
Van Buren, Martin Presi- 
dent, 200, 225 



45, 49, 53 

186 

45, 46, 49, 58 

56 

187 

186 

99, 101 

130 

156 

229 

130 

189 

80 

189 

15 

190 

88 

88 

88 

97 

254 

198 

101 

243 

244 

191 

129 
56 



POLYTECH 



PAGE. 
108 
97 
176 
185 
235 



155 

89, 179 

94 

101 

16 

154< 



Van Corlear, Anthony, 
Van Cortland Manor. 
Vanderberg Cove, 
Vanderlyn, John, 
Van Rensselaer Place, 
Van Santvoord, Commodore, 

212, 233 
Vassar, Matthew, 
Vaughan, General, 
Verditege Hook, . 
Verplanck's Point, 
Verrazzani, 

W. 

Wappingers Creek, 

Warner, Susan Miss, author- 
ess, 127 

WASHINGTON,GEORGE, 60, 62, 65, 66, 67 
Washington's Headquarters, 

Newburgh, .... 137. 
Washington Heights, . 62 
Waterford, .... 244 
Wayne, Anthony General, 

99, 100, 115 
Weehawken, . 
West Camp, 
West Hurley, 
West Park, 
West Point, 

Battle Monument, 
Chapel Building, 
United States Military Acad- 
emy, . 
Westport, 

West Shore Railroad 
West Troy, 
Willis, N. P. Poet, 
Wittenberg Mountain, 

Y. 
YONKERS, 75 

City Hall, .... 76 

Clubs, 76 

Manor Hall, ... 76 



56 
201 
186 
171 
118 
120 
123 



120 

266 

98 

244 

14,242 

187 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







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